Vince Murdock never made it to the octagon, and he’ll be waiting over a year before making his UFC debut after running afoul of USADA.
Another UFC athlete has been suspended without ever making it to the octagon. On Thursday, USADA (the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency) announced that featherweight Vince Murdock had been handed a twenty-month suspension following a positive out-of-competition drug test.
Murdock (12-3) had been expected to face Jordan Griffin at UFC on ESPN 3 in June, but was pulled from the card for medical reasons. In a urine sample collected on July 6, 2019, Murdock tested positive for GW1516 metabolites GW1516 sulfoxide and GW1516 sulfone, per a USADA press release.
“GW1516, also known as GW501516 and cardarine, is a non-Specified Substance in the category of Hormone and Metabolic Modulators and is prohibited at all times under the UFC Anti-Doping Policy,” USADA wrote in Thursday’s release.
Curiously, “After being notified of his positive test, Murdock came forward with evidence of his use of this prohibited substance before entering the UFC Anti-Doping Program.” However, he did not disclose use of the substance in advance upon entering the testing pool. Had he done so, he would have avoided any sanction, but been required to sit out six months and provide two clean samples moving forward.
Despite admitting to using the substance after the fact, this evidence was enough to earn Murdock a small reduction in sentence, as he could have been looking at a full two years. His twenty month suspension will be back-dated to July 6, 2019, the date of his positive test.
