‘The Ural Hulk’ Ivan Shtyrkov has been banished two years by USADA, but given he’s already signed on with RIZIN, it’s a suspension in name only.
Not that it matters, because he’s already found gainful employment with another promotion, but would-be UFC fighter Ivan Shtyrkov has accepted a two-year USADA suspension, the Anti-Doping agency announced in a press release Tuesday. As a result, Shtyrkov, who no longer competes for the UFC (and never actually made it to the octagon), will not be able to compete for the UFC moving forward.
Shtyrkov (15-0-1), who is fighting Hoon Kim at RIZIN 17 later this month, signed on with the UFC earlier this year. However, he was pulled from the UFC St. Petersburg card in April after “two out-of-competition urine samples collected on March 27, 2019 and April 3, 2019 reported as atypical,” according to the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency. As it turns out, those atypical results stemmed from the presence of anabolic agent boldenone and its metabolite 5β-androst-1-en-17β-ol-3-one.
As a result, Shtyrkov is ineligible to compete for two years, dating back to March 27, 2019. Given he’s already moved on, however, this suspension essentially does little else other than keep him from competing in North America.
Shtyrkov has made a career out of beating up former UFC and Bellator stars, including Bigfoot Silva, Thiago Silva, Ricco Rodriguez, Christian M’Pumbu, Satoshi Ishii, and Phil De Fries.
In a statement in a press release from RIZIN announcing his fight with Hoon Kim, Shtyrkov’s management denied the fighter had tested positive for PEDs. “Ivan’s sample came back with an abnormal reading, not a positive test for PED’s,” Ruby Sports and Entertainment CEO Daniel Rubenstein wrote. Tuesday’s release by USADA would contradict that.
