USADA Announces Four Fighters Suspended For Ostarine

The United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) has announced four fighters have tested positive for the performance-enhancing drug (PED) Ostarine. The positive samples came from out-of-competition tests. ESPN’s Ariel Helwani reported today that the four fighters who tested positive include Sean O’Malley, Nicco Montaño, Augusto Mendes, and Marvin Vettori. All four were subsequently handed six-month suspensions. […]

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The United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) has announced four fighters have tested positive for the performance-enhancing drug (PED) Ostarine. The positive samples came from out-of-competition tests.

ESPN’s Ariel Helwani reported today that the four fighters who tested positive include Sean O’Malley, Nicco Montaño, Augusto Mendes, and Marvin Vettori. All four were subsequently handed six-month suspensions. O’Malley’s suspension is already up, while Montano’s is up next month:

“USADA just announced that Sean O’Malley, Nicco Montaño, Augusto Mendes & Marvin Vettori all tested positive for the PED ostarine in recent out-of-competition drug tests & were subsequently suspended six months. O’Malley’s suspension is already up while Montaño’s is up next month.”

The 24-year-old O’Malley is currently undefeated in his mixed martial arts (MMA) career. His last Octagon appearance resulted in a unanimous decision victory over Andre Soukhamthath at UFC 22 last March. As for Montano, the former UFC women’s flyweight champion won the inaugural title in her last outing by outlasting Roxanne Modafferi.

Mendes hasn’t been active since being defeated by Aljamain Sterling in April of last year. Finally, Vettori hasn’t fought since his split decision loss to Israel Adesanya, also in April of last year.

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Former UFC Champion Nicco Montano Talks About Her ‘Rough’ 2018

Nicco Montano has taken the time to reflect on what has been a rocky 2018 for her. Back in Dec. 2017, Montano picked up the biggest win of her professional mixed martial arts career against Roxanne Modafferi. Not only did she win “The Ultimate Fi…

Nicco Montano has taken the time to reflect on what has been a rocky 2018 for her. Back in Dec. 2017, Montano picked up the biggest win of her professional mixed martial arts career against Roxanne Modafferi. Not only did she win “The Ultimate Fighter” season 28 tournament, but she was also crowned the inaugural […]

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Valentina Shevchenko Isn’t Sure Nicco Montano Will Ever Fight Again

Valentina Shevchenko still has some grievances with Nicco Montano. The pair were initially expected to co-main event UFC 228 earlier this month. Instead, Montano was forced to pull out the morning of weigh-ins due to a bad weight-cut. No replacement wa…

Valentina Shevchenko still has some grievances with Nicco Montano. The pair were initially expected to co-main event UFC 228 earlier this month. Instead, Montano was forced to pull out the morning of weigh-ins due to a bad weight-cut. No replacement was found and the fight was cancelled. Because Montano couldn’t defend her title, she was […]

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Valentina Shevchenko vs. Joanna Jedrzejczyk Official For UFC 231

The biggest fight possible in the UFC women’s flyweight division is official. UFC Canada announced this evening (Thurs., September 20, 2018) that Valentina Shevchenko vs. Joanna Jedrzejczyk has been signed. The fight will go down at December 8’s UFC 231 from the Scotiabank Arena in Toronto, Ontario: What a fight for Toronto 🇨🇦! @JoannaMMA battles […]

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The biggest fight possible in the UFC women’s flyweight division is official. UFC Canada announced this evening (Thurs., September 20, 2018) that Valentina Shevchenko vs. Joanna Jedrzejczyk has been signed.

The fight will go down at December 8’s UFC 231 from the Scotiabank Arena in Toronto, Ontario:

Shevchenko was scheduled to meet Nicco Montano at September 8’s UFC 228. The plans fell apart when Montano fell ill. The UFC soon decided to strip her and vacate the title. debuted at 125 pounds with a brutal showing versus Priscila Cachoeira in February after two losses to women’s bantamweight champion Amanda Nunes.

“Bullet” is the sort of uncrowned champion at 125 pounds due to her performance against larger opponents.

She’ll have to get past Jedrzejczyk to become the official champion. The former “Joanna Champion” suffered two straight losses to current champion Rose Namajunas. She rebounded with a decision win over Tecia Torres at UFC on FOX 30 this July. The vicious weight cut down to 115 pounds has clearly affected her in her recent bouts. Jedrzejczyk’s move was an expected one.

Shevchenko and Jedrzejczyk have actually fought three times in Muay Thai. “Bullet” won all three of the fights, which certainly should make her a solid favorite. Shevchenko has been largely flawless outside of her two fight with Nunes. Her well-round skillset makes her one of the most feared fighters in women’s mixed martial arts because of it.

Will she take home the women’s 125-pound title as a result?

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Joanna Jedrzejczyk Claps Back At “Jealous” UFC Flyweights

Joanna Jedrzejczyk isn’t in this game to make any friends.

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The UFC women’s flyweight division is now wide open.

Initially, inaugural women’s 125-pound champion Nicco Montano was to defend her title against Valentina Shevchenko in the co-main event of UFC 228. Unfortunately, Montano was hospitalized for a bad weight-cut and was removed from the card. She was subsequently stripped of the title.

UFC President Dana White has announced Shevchenko will get the first crack at fighting for the vacant belt. Her opponent has yet to be determined, but UFC fans have a pretty good idea of who’s in mind.

Former UFC 115-pound champion Joanna Jedrzejczyk has some history with Shevchenko. She was defeated by “The Bullet” in Muay Thai competition several times before. “JJ” would be an excellent choice to fight Shevchenko for the vacant strap.

This might be unsettling to current 125-pound competitors. The fact that the title opportunity could go to someone not even in the division is an upsetting one. Jedrzejczyk tells Ariel Helwani’s MMA Show she believes they’re simply “jealous” (quotes via MMA Mania):

“I’m so sorry, don’t be jealous. There are not so many dedicated fighters like me and not that many with that big legacy,” she said.

“I am always willing to fight and UFC knows this. I was supposed to take a long break, but I don’t know if that will happen now. Like I said, I am always open to move up and fight for the belt against Shevchenko.”

Jedrzejczyk said she has yet to be officially offered the fight, but if it happens, she’s confident it’ll happen this year:

“I cannot say yes, I cannot say no…There’s a big chance that this happens…If this fight is going to happen it’s going to happen this year,” she added.

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Joanna Jedrzejczyk Blasts Nicco Montano’s ‘Bulls**t’ Behavior As Champion

Earlier this month (Sat., September 8, 2018), UFC 228 lost one of its most important bouts for the pay-per-view event from American Airlines Center in Dallas, Texas. It all went down at weigh-ins the day before the card when former women’s flyweight champion Nicco Montano was forced out her first scheduled title defense in the co-main […]

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Earlier this month (Sat., September 8, 2018), UFC 228 lost one of its most important bouts for the pay-per-view event from American Airlines Center in Dallas, Texas.

It all went down at weigh-ins the day before the card when former women’s flyweight champion Nicco Montano was forced out her first scheduled title defense in the co-main event. Montano had not yet set foot into the Octagon since capturing the title as an unlikely winner on The Ultimate Fighter (TUF) 27 last December.

Because of the repeated issues with getting her into the octagon, the UFC made the call to strip Montano of her belt relatively quickly after she missed weighing in before UFC 228. Not many have come to her side in the time since, and one former champion who has been in a similar circumstance is one of them.

Former UFC women’s strawweight champion Joanna Jedrzejczyk recently likened Montano’s miss at this weekend’s (Sat., September 15, 2018) UFC Moscow (via MMA Mania) to her own bad weight cut prior to her losing the title against Rose Namajunas at UFC 217 last year. It isn’t easy, but the former ‘Joanna Champion’ said the UFC was right to strip Montano because of what she did:

”Man, I paid the ultimate price, but I was on weight in November 2017,” she told media at UFC Fight Night Moscow. “I would do this the same because for me it’s a shame, us as fighters, athletes and champions to not be on weight.

”We need real and dedicated fighters and champions in the UFC. The UFC is the best organization in the world. There’s no space and time for bullsh**t like this. It was a very hard decision, very tough decision. I believe she is not happy but you must take this job very serious and you must be 100 percent in. Weight cuts are not easy, are not nice. But it’s part of our job and you shouldn’t complain and you must be on weight when you have to be.”

Now that women’s flyweight no longer has a champion, top-ranked Shevchenko is thought of as the uncrowned champion – something she was often called even before Montano missed weight.

It’s recently been rumored that Shevchenko will meet Jedrzejczyk, whom she’s already beaten in Muay Thai three times, for the flyweight title when the former women’s 115-pound champion ditches the draining weight cut to strawweight.

Jedrzejczyk cautioned that fans and media members pump the brakes a little, because while she does have an offer out it’s not set in stone:

”This fight is not on,” she said. “So of course I’ve got an offer, but we’ll see. I’m very open to fight Valentina Shevchenko. I always want to fight the best fighters, and definitely she is one of the top female fighters in the world.”

With a scene that can only be described as a mess at women’s flyweight, Shevchenko vs. Jedrzejczyk can only be described as by far the best fight the UFC has to offer in the weight class.

Shevchenko has seen two champions back out of fighting her at the last minute in just over a year, so they’d be best served to get it signed as soon as possible.

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