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What's the story?
UFC announced that Light Heavyweight Ion Cutelaba was pulled from his match against Michal Oleksiejczuk due to a possible violation of the anti-doping policy. His suspension was 'provisional'. The matter will be looked into and investigated further.
In case you didn't know....
UFC has an extremely strict anti-doping policy which they expect all their fighters to adhere to. Previously, several UFC fighters have been suspended and punished for violations of the policy.
Ion Cutelaba was scheduled to face Michal Oleksiejczuk at UFC 217 on the 4th of November. This revelation certainly means that their confrontation may have to wait. Cutelaba is coming from a match where he beat Henrique da Silva with a 22-second knockout. He has a 13-3 record in MMA and is recognised as an up and coming star.
The heart of the matter
UFC said in their statement that USADA had notified them about the possible violation. They said it stemmed from an investigation into 'voluntary disclosures' by Cutelaba during an out-of-competition sample collection.
"The UFC organization was notified today that the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) has informed Ion Cutelaba of a potential Anti-Doping Policy violation stemming from its investigation into voluntary disclosures by Cutelaba during an out-of-competition sample collections on October 18 and October 19, 2017."
This revelation put a stop to the scheduled fight between Cutelaba and Michal Oleksiejczuk at UFC 217.
What's next?
As is the norm, USADA will look into managing the results of the possible doping case. Cutelaba will be given a full review before any sentencing.
UFC 217 will proceed with 11 matches on their card.
Author's take
At just 23, Cutelaba has enjoyed a lot of success in MMA already. All of that may potentially be at risk with this revelation.
Hopefully, for him, he will come out of this without it impacting his career too much.
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