Junior dos Santos off UFC 215 for doping violation

Former UFC Heavyweight Champion Junior dos Santos is off UFC 215 due to a potential doping violation. The UFC has announced that they will seek a replacement for his opponent, Francis Ngannou, on 3 weeks notice. Here’s the official statement that was released by the UFC earlier today.

The UFC organization was notified today that the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) has informed Junior Dos Santos of a potential Anti-Doping Policy violation stemming from an out-of-competition sample collected on Aug. 10, 2017. Because of the proximity to Dos Santos’ upcoming scheduled bout at UFC 215 in Edmonton, Canada against Francis Ngannou, Dos Santos has been removed from the card and the UFC is currently seeking a replacement.

USADA, the independent administrator of the UFC Anti-Doping Policy, will handle the results management and appropriate adjudication of this case involving Dos Santos. Under the UFC Anti-Doping Policy, there is a full and fair legal process that is afforded to all athletes before any sanctions are imposed. Additional information will be provided at the appropriate time as the process moves forward.

It goes without saying that Ngannou was not impressed upon hearing the news.

I'm very very angry!!!

Almost done with training camp and they just announced that my opponent is out for #ufc215

— Francis NGannou (@francis_ngannou) August 18, 2017

Dos Santos’ manager, Ana Guedes, says that the Junior camp is strongly denying any use of PEDs by ‘Cigano’. This comes from ESPN’s Brett Okamoto who is set to release a story on the matter shortly. We’ll continue to keep you fully up to date on this ongoing situation moving forward.