UFC lightweight fighter Bobby Green has been suspended six months for failing a drug test, the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) announced Friday.
Green, who went public about the adverse finding last month, tested positive for an anabolic androgenic steroid of exogenous origin in a urine sample collected May 16, according to the USADA. Green provided evidence to the agency that he purchased and ingested the banned substance dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) as an over-the-counter supplement.
The UFC had scheduled Green to fight Jim Miller at UFC 276 on July 2, but Green was pulled from the bout because of the failed drug test.
DHEA can be sold legally in the United States as a dietary supplement. Because of that, Green's cooperation and a low degree of performance enhancement determined, the USADA cut a potential two-year suspension to six months. That ban started retroactively on the date of the sample collection, so Green is eligible to return to the UFC on Nov. 16.
Green, a fan favorite, said in an Instagram video Sept. 23 that he had watched a YouTube video from a doctor about the benefits of DHEA and didn't realize it was banned since it was so easy to obtain, and his wife bought him a bottle of the supplement from Walmart. Green accepted fault for the positive test in the video, saying, "I take responsibility."
"I'm crushed," Green said at the time. "I'm like what the f---? I had no idea, guys, what I was doing, that it was wrong, that there was any benefits to what I was doing. I would never try to cheat. I would never try to lie to my public. I'm against drugs, I'm against PEDs."
Green (29-13-1) has been a pro fighter for 14 years, nine in the UFC. The California native is coming off a short-notice, TKO loss to top lightweight contender Islam Makhachev in February. Green, 36, had won two straight and five of seven before that and was a stalwart for the UFC during the no-crowd pandemic era.