In June 2019 USADA has reported an anti-doping rule violation against the Brazilian MMA Athlete Bruno Arruda da Silva after his A and B samples tested positive for the prohibited substance Boldenone. Further in January 2020 USADA charged the Athlete for Tampering. After notification a provisional suspension was ordered. The Athlete filed a statement in his defence and he was heard for the UFC Arbitration Panel.
The Athlete accepted the test result and denied that the violation was intentional. He argued that the substance inadvertently had entered his system and that he was tested before without issues. He also suggested that meat contamination had caused the positive test. Analysis of the supplements and an injectable hair product he had used did not reveal prohibited substances.
USADA rejected the arguments of the Athlete and deemed that he committed the violation intentionally. It contended that the Athlete failed to establish how the substance had entered his system and that he didn’t produce any corroborating evidence in his defence. It regards that the Athlete’s contention about meat contamination is mere speculation while in Brazil the use of growth promotants like Boldenone was prohibited in all beef production.
Finally USADA asserted that the Athlete tampered becaused in the previous one year he failed to mention the use of any substance on the Onboarding Form for the USADA UFC Registered Testing Pool nor were declared the use of supplements.
The Arbitrator finds that the presence of the prohibited substance has been established in the Athlete’s samples and accordingly that he committed an anti-doping rule violation for presence but also an ADRV for tampering.
Because the Athlete only produced hypothesis and speculative explanations for his positive test, he does not mee the legally required standard of proof that would allow for any reduction of his sanction. The Arbitrator considers that the UCF ADR imposes far less stringent sanctions than the WADC by setting de default period of ineligibility at 2 years instead of 4 years.
Therefore the UFC Arbitration Panel decides on 15 June 2020 to impose a 2 year period of ineligibility on the Athlete starting on the date of the provisional suspension, i.e. on 14 June 2019.
