Gilbert Melendez gets two-year USADA suspension

Gilbert Melendez has been served a suspension for an anti-doping violation, the U.S. Anti-Doping Company introduced Monday.

The former Strikeforce light-weight winner was supplied a two-yr suspension by the UFC’s anti-doping husband or wife after he analyzed good for GHRP-6 and its metabolites GHRP-6(2-5)-OH and GHRP-6(2-6)-OH, which stems from a urine sample collected in an out-of-levels of competition examination Oct. 16, 2019.

GHRP-6 is prohibited at all occasions below the UFC Anti-Doping Plan.

Melendez (22-8) was not able discover the resource of the prohibited compound but did obstacle USADA’s jurisdiction to conduct the test as his UFC contract experienced officially been terminated on Oct. 12 – four days prior to the collection of his urine.

Nevertheless, Melendez was not notified until eventually Nov. 6 of his UFC release, and USADA didn’t obtain affirmation to get rid of Melendez from its screening pool until finally Dec. 5. According to the UFC Anti-Doping Plan, USADA has jurisdiction of screening athletes until finally notified of removing from the tests pool by the UFC.

USADA said the “UFC typically offers speedy notification” of athlete’s removal from the screening pool, but that wasn’t the scenario with Melendez.

Melendez received the letter for his UFC launch on Nov. 6 in an e-mail from UFC’s Tracy Extended, which states: “I apologize for the hold off in sending this letter. I have been traveling and another person from my group have to have inadvertently submitted it right before I was in a position to send it.”

An independent arbitrator deemed that USADA did have jurisdiction to the two perform the check and allege an anti-doping plan violation in the party of a positive sample, as they had been not notified of Melendez’s termination of contract and removal from the testing pool.

The suspension is retroactive from Nov. 1, 2019, creating him suitable to return in November 2021.

Melendez was produced from the UFC immediately after going 1-6 in the promotion. The 38-calendar year-old most recently competed from Arnold Allen in July 2019. He lost via unanimous decision, extending his losing skid to five.

Even though Melendez is no extended with the UFC, athletic commissions in the U.S. typically honor USADA suspensions. Melendez has not been lively in a yr but has not announced any intention to retire from MMA.

Melendez is regarded a person of the greatest 155-pound fighters of his time, owning defended the Strikeforce lightweight title 4 situations from 2010 to 2012. Melendez holds notable victories about Jorge Masvidal, Josh Thomson, Diego Sanchez, Clay Guida, and Shinya Aoki.

Melendez challenged then-UFC champ Benson Henderson for the title in 2013, losing a selection numerous scored in his favor.