UFC featherweight Yair Rodriguez will be on the shelf for a few more months.
On Thursday, the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency (USADA), which oversees the UFC’s Anti-Doping Policy, announced that Rodriguez (13-2, 1NC), had accepted a six-month sanction for whereabouts violations. Under the UFC ADP, athletes are expected to keep USADA informed of their whereabouts at all times in order to facilitate random testing.
Per a USADA press release, “Accurate Whereabouts information is a crucial component of an effective out-of-competition testing program because it enables anti-doping organizations to conduct no-notice sample collections, which helps maintain effective doping deterrence and detection.
“Rodriguez failed to update his Whereabouts information and was unavailable for testing at locations provided in his Whereabouts Filings on three occasions. He accrued a Whereabouts Failure in each of the first three quarters of 2020. The accumulation of three Whereabouts Failures within a 12-month period constitutes a policy violation under the UFC Anti-Doping Policy.”
As his whereabouts failures did not raise suspicion of anything untoward, Rodriguez was eligible for a reduction in his sanction. The six-month suspension is backdated to September 8, 2020.
Of course, Yair Rodriguez has been circling a fight with Zabit Magomedsharipov for what feels like forever. The Mexican fighter, who won The Ultimate Fighter: Latin American in 2014, last competed against Jeremy Stephens in October 2019. He won the bout by unanimous decision. Rodriguez holds a record of 8-1, 1NC inside the octagon.
