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“Sugar” Sean O’Malley won’t be fighting at UFC 239.
The charismatic bantamweight was scheduled to fight Marlon Vera on the July 6 card at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
However, as he explained in a Friday post on his Instagram account, O’Malley has been temporarily suspended by the Nevada Athletic Commission due to trace amounts of the banned substance Ostarine appearing in his system in a recent U.S. Anti-Doping Agency drug test.
O’Malley had been suspended for six months through March by USADA after a similar infraction before being reinstated. The short length of the punishment was due to the fact the levels of Ostarine recorded were consistent with the volume found in contaminated supplements.
USADA chose not to levy any addition penalties due to the meager amount of the substance which showed up in his system. But the NAC has chosen to investigate the matter, thus the temporary suspension and O’Malley’s removal from the card.
“USADA has notified me that ostarine, the substance that showed up in my system last year and led to USADA sanctioning me, has resurfaced at an extremely low level in two recent tests,” O’Malley’s Instagram statement read in part. “The good news is that USADA says this is most likely residual from last year and that the low level is providing me with no performance advantage. That’s why USADA is not re-sanctioning me for these test results. I already served a USADA sanction for the presence of ostarine in my system, and it has decreased dramatically since last year.”
O’Malley is clearly not amused by NAC’s decision, as he said he is now being punished twice for an infraction he did not commit.
“Punished twice for doing nothing wrong,” O’Malley said. “I have never taken anything illegal. I don’t know what’s going to happen, but I will continue to train and get better everyday.”
For more on UFC 239, check out our UFC Rumors section.
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