UFC flyweight Rachael Ostovich has accepted a one-year ban from the US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) after a urine sample gave a positive reading for a banned substance, the agency has announced.
Twenty-nine-year-old Ostovich, who is currently 4-6 in the promotion, tested positive for ostarine and GW1516 metabolites in an out-of-competition urine sample that was collected January 3, USADA said.
Despite being banned for one year, Ostovich is free to return to the octagon as early as August 3, on account of her having already been given a four-month reduction “due to time served under a provisional suspension in the latter half of 2019 for an atypical finding.”
“During an investigation into the circumstances of the positive test, Ostovich identified a supplement she had tried, which was analyzed at the World Anti-Doping Agency-accredited laboratory in Salt Lake City,” USADA said in a statement.
“Although ostarine and GW1516 were not listed on the supplement label, the analysis revealed that the product contained ostarine and GW1516, the substances for which Ostovich tested positive. The product label listed another prohibited substance, but Ostovich did not realize at the time that it was prohibited.”
Ostovich has not fought in nearly 18 months, her last outing being a loss to Paige VanZant, and has registered only one win from three fights in UFC, on her debut in December 2017, leading many to criticize the decision of the UFC to allow a fighter with a losing record to compete in what is considered the world's premier mixed martial arts promotion.
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