After a successful debut against C.B. Dollaway at UFC Moscow, Khalid Murtazaliev will sit out two years thanks to positive tests for anabolic agent drostanolone.
You won’t be seeing UFC middleweight Khalid Murtazaliev any time soon. On Friday, USADA (U.S. Anti-Doping Agency) announced that the fighter had accepted a two year ban from competition. That follows a positive out-of-competition drug test for drostanolone and its metabolite 2α-methyl-5α-androstan-3α-ol-17-one. In fact, the substances appeared in tests administered in both October and December of last year.
Drostanolone is an anabolic agent, and prohibited at all times under the UFC’s Anti-Doping Policy, which is enforced by USADA. According to Friday’s press release from the anti-doping outfit, “Murtazaliev’s two samples under the rules are treated as a single, first violation because the amount of drostanolone and its metabolite detected in both samples is consistent with administration via injection prior to the first sample collected on October 3, 2018. Murtazaliev’s two-year period of ineligibility began on October 3, 2018, the date his sample was collected.”
In other words, Murtazaliev (14-2) will not be eligible to compete until October 3, 2020. The fighter from the Dagestan region of Russia won his debut in the promotion in September, at UFC Moscow. There, he defeated veteran C.B. Dollaway. Murtazaliev’s win will stand, as his failed tests came after the bout and were out of competition. That’s not likely to soften the blow for Dollaway, however. Prior to his UFC debut, Murtazaliev had won two bouts under the FNG banner.
