The United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) has cleared three Brazilian UFC athletes to resume their respective careers, after linking multiple failed drug tests to a pair of compounding pharmacies in Brazil.
Heavyweight Junior dos Santos (18-5) and light heavyweights Marcos Rogerio de Lima (15-5-1) and Antonio Rogerio Nogueira (22-5) have each accepted six-month suspensions for failed drug tests in 2017.
All suspensions are retroactive to the dates of the fighters' failed tests, all of which were at least six months ago. As such, all three are immediately eligible to resume competition.
Dos Santos, 34, and Nogueira, 41, each tested positive for the banned diuretic hydrochlorothiazide. De Lima, 32, tested positive for hydrochlorothiazide and anastrozole.
According to a statement by USADA, all three athletes "used compounded supplements at the direction of their respective physicians or nutritionists." Following an investigation, USADA identified two pharmacies that provided the athletes tainted legal supplements.
"We appreciate the cooperation of the athletes and international authorities in getting to the bottom of this situation, as it will hopefully prevent these problems from occurring in the future," said USADA CEO Travis Tygart.
"The [UFC's contaminated products] rule recognizes that supplements can be a risk and also guards against unfounded and unfair reductions by requiring a thorough investigation of all claims of 'contamination.' The rule also ensures that athletes are not overly penalized when they have been diligent in what they use, and when it is proven the source of the positive is from a contaminated product, like in these cases."
Dos Santos was supposed to fight Francis Ngannou at UFC 215 last September, but was pulled from the card. Now fighting out of South Florida, dos Santos is coming off a TKO loss to Stipe Miocic in a championship title fight last May.
Nogueira has not fought since November 2016. De Lima is 3-4 in the UFC, with wins over Rashad Evans and Tito Ortiz.