Jump to
Things have been a bit quiet lately on the drug testing scene for the world’s largest MMA promotion. While PFL has been drowning in PED cases, the biggest scandal hitting the UFC’s doping protocols has been Conor McGregor’s apparent continual unwillingness to enter the testing pool and make his re-entry to the UFC’s active roster official.
Newcomer Braxton Smith made headlines with a drug test failure for elevated testosterone levels back in June, but the most recent fighter of any stature to face meaningful sanctions from USADA was former Olympian Hamdy Abdelwahab. Himself a newcomer to the Octagon, Abdelwahab found his burgeoning MMA career sidelined for the next two years after testing turned up the anabolic steroid Methenolone in samples collected around his debut bout in 2022.
Walt Harris forced off UFC Fight Night: Holm vs. Bueno Silva
Earlier this week, the UFC announced that a heavyweight fight between Walt Harris and Jared Vanderaa had been removed from this week’s UFC Fight Night event. No reason for the bout’s cancellation was given at the time. Shortly after the news broke, however, the ‘Big Ticket’ took to social media to reveal that he had been suspended due to a failed drug test.
“Hello to all my fans.
I wanted you to hear from me first that my fight has been cancelled due to an issue that just came up with my most recent USADA test. I believe this came from a supplement that I’ve trusted my entire career, but at the end of the day it was never USADA approved. I’m a complete idiot for not checking prior, but I’m definitely not a cheater.
“I sincerely want to apologize to my opponent Josh Parisian. I was looking forward to doing battle with you in the octagon. Once I get pass this if you’re down I hope we can try again! I am going to face this head on while working with UFC and USADA and hope to have all of this sorted out in the coming weeks. Thank you for your patience and support and I am looking forward to making this comeback very soon.”
For his part, Josh Parisian was quick to respond to the news, dropping a comment on Harris’ Instagram page that he’s hopeful Harris can “get this figured out.”
“Hey, brother!” Parisian wrote. “I am sorry this happened, not just for myself, but for you, too. I’m honestly a huge fan of yours and I hope you’re able to get this figured out. Someone suggested to us that it was a family emergency and I’m incredibly grateful that it wasn’t that.”
The latest in a long string of setbacks for UFC heavyweight Walt Harris
Back in 2019, Walt Harris looked like he was on the cusp of something. Outside of a forgivable loss to Fabricio Werdum on extremely short notice, there was an argument to be made that Harris hadn’t been clearly beaten in an MMA fight since a 2014 loss to Soa Palelei. He scored back to back KO’s over Sergei Spivak and Aleksei Oleinik that year, and climbed to the 8-spot in the UFC heavyweight rankings. Then tragedy struck.
In October of 2019, Harris’ stepdaughter Aniah Blanchard was kidnapped by Ibraheem Yazeed. Initially arrested for felony kidnapping, Yazeed would eventually be charged with capital murder after Blanchard’s remains were discovered a month later. It was a terrible, heart-wrenching crime. One that Harris wanted to work through as much with his fighting career as with legal and political efforts outside the Octagon.
Unfortunately for Harris, when he returned in May of 2020, it seemed as though the weight of his loss was still right there with him. MMA is not a kind sport, and Harris went 0-3 over the next year with all three defeats coming via TKO. His last fight was a first round finish to Marcin Tybura in June of 2021.
Tainted supplement cases in the UFC
Hopefully for Harris, his trouble with USADA won’t keep him out of the cage for too long. In 2020 Marc-Andre Barriault found himself on the receiving end of a suspension from USADA for a failed drug test for Ostarine. Much like Harris, the Canadian middleweight claimed a tainted supplement was at fault.
After testing proved Barriault’s claims correct, ‘Power Bar’ ended up with a six month suspension recognizing that while he did not intentionally use a banned substance, he still bore some responsibility for using supplements that were not authorized by USADA.
Yoel Romero went through a similar process in 2016, and was initially offered a 9-month suspension from USADA or the option to go to arbitration. Romero chose arbitration and had his suspension reduced to 6 months. Alongside his case with USADA, Romero decided to pursue the supplement maker with a lawsuit. In 2019 Romero was awarded $27 million in damages in a default judgement with the New Jersey Court system (the defendant failed to respond to the lawsuit).
Those damages were later reduced to $12.45 million in 2021 by the New Jersey Superior Court. However, given the unregulated nature of the supplement industry and the tendency for supplement makers to run their businesses through shell companies, it’s fairly unlikely Romero has ever seen a cent of that money.
Hopefully for Harris, if he can prove his case, he’ll be back in competition sometime early next year.
SoundCloud: Change block type or style
Move Embed block from position 20 up to position 19
Block Embed is at the end of the content and can’t be moved down
Change alignment
UFC fight for this weekend cancelled after failed USADA test
Jump to
- Walt Harris forced off UFC Fight Night: Holm vs. Bueno Silva
- The latest in a long string of setbacks for UFC heavyweight Walt Harris
- Tainted supplement cases in the UFC
- Join the Bloody Elbow Substack!
Things have been a bit quiet lately on the drug testing scene for the world’s largest MMA promotion. While PFL has been drowning in PED cases, the biggest scandal hitting the UFC’s doping protocols has been Conor McGregor’s apparent continual unwillingness to enter the testing pool and make his re-entry to the UFC’s active roster official.
Newcomer Braxton Smith made headlines with a drug test failure for elevated testosterone levels back in June, but the most recent fighter of any stature to face meaningful sanctions from USADA was former Olympian Hamdy Abdelwahab. Himself a newcomer to the Octagon, Abdelwahab found his burgeoning MMA career sidelined for the next two years after testing turned up the anabolic steroid Methenolone in samples collected around his debut bout in 2022.
Walt Harris forced off UFC Fight Night: Holm vs. Bueno Silva
Earlier this week, the UFC announced that a heavyweight fight between Walt Harris and Jared Vanderaa had been removed from this week’s UFC Fight Night event. No reason for the bout’s cancellation was given at the time. Shortly after the news broke, however, the ‘Big Ticket’ took to social media to reveal that he had been suspended due to a failed drug test.
“Hello to all my fans.
I wanted you to hear from me first that my fight has been cancelled due to an issue that just came up with my most recent USADA test. I believe this came from a supplement that I’ve trusted my entire career, but at the end of the day it was never USADA approved. I’m a complete idiot for not checking prior, but I’m definitely not a cheater.
“I sincerely want to apologize to my opponent Josh Parisian. I was looking forward to doing battle with you in the octagon. Once I get pass this if you’re down I hope we can try again! I am going to face this head on while working with UFC and USADA and hope to have all of this sorted out in the coming weeks. Thank you for your patience and support and I am looking forward to making this comeback very soon.”
For his part, Josh Parisian was quick to respond to the news, dropping a comment on Harris’ Instagram page that he’s hopeful Harris can “get this figured out.”
“Hey, brother!” Parisian wrote. “I am sorry this happened, not just for myself, but for you, too. I’m honestly a huge fan of yours and I hope you’re able to get this figured out. Someone suggested to us that it was a family emergency and I’m incredibly grateful that it wasn’t that.”
The latest in a long string of setbacks for UFC heavyweight Walt Harris
Back in 2019, Walt Harris looked like he was on the cusp of something. Outside of a forgivable loss to Fabricio Werdum on extremely short notice, there was an argument to be made that Harris hadn’t been clearly beaten in an MMA fight since a 2014 loss to Soa Palelei. He scored back to back KO’s over Sergei Spivak and Aleksei Oleinik that year, and climbed to the 8-spot in the UFC heavyweight rankings. Then tragedy struck.
In October of 2019, Harris’ stepdaughter Aniah Blanchard was kidnapped by Ibraheem Yazeed. Initially arrested for felony kidnapping, Yazeed would eventually be charged with capital murder after Blanchard’s remains were discovered a month later. It was a terrible, heart-wrenching crime. One that Harris wanted to work through as much with his fighting career as with legal and political efforts outside the Octagon.
Unfortunately for Harris, when he returned in May of 2020, it seemed as though the weight of his loss was still right there with him. MMA is not a kind sport, and Harris went 0-3 over the next year with all three defeats coming via TKO. His last fight was a first round finish to Marcin Tybura in June of 2021.
Tainted supplement cases in the UFC
Hopefully for Harris, his trouble with USADA won’t keep him out of the cage for too long. In 2020 Marc-Andre Barriault found himself on the receiving end of a suspension from USADA for a failed drug test for Ostarine. Much like Harris, the Canadian middleweight claimed a tainted supplement was at fault.
After testing proved Barriault’s claims correct, ‘Power Bar’ ended up with a six month suspension recognizing that while he did not intentionally use a banned substance, he still bore some responsibility for using supplements that were not authorized by USADA.
Yoel Romero went through a similar process in 2016, and was initially offered a 9-month suspension from USADA or the option to go to arbitration. Romero chose arbitration and had his suspension reduced to 6 months. Alongside his case with USADA, Romero decided to pursue the supplement maker with a lawsuit. In 2019 Romero was awarded $27 million in damages in a default judgement with the New Jersey Court system (the defendant failed to respond to the lawsuit).
Those damages were later reduced to $12.45 million in 2021 by the New Jersey Superior Court. However, given the unregulated nature of the supplement industry and the tendency for supplement makers to run their businesses through shell companies, it’s fairly unlikely Romero has ever seen a cent of that money.
Hopefully for Harris, if he can prove his case, he’ll be back in competition sometime early next year.
Join the Bloody Elbow Substack!
Support Bloody Elbow, and get exclusive content.
SUBSCRIBE
About the author
