UFC Middleweight Yoel Romero Tests Positive for a Designer Anabolic Steroid
UFC Middleweight Yoel Romero Tests Positive for a Designer Anabolic Steroid
UFC middleweight Yoel Romero faces a two-year suspension after he allegedly tested positive for a prohibited designer anabolic steroid. The United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) announced the anti-doping violation on January 1, 2016.
The 38-year old Romero had made a dramatic return to high-level sports competition in mixed martial arts (MMA) after he retired from the sport of freestyle wrestling in 2005. He racked up a professional MMA record of 12 wins and 1 loss.
Romero was the third-ranked contender in the UFC middleweight division with seven consecutive victories since he joined the UFC in 2013. He was hoping to set up a run for a title match against current title holder Luke Rockhold. A two-year suspension would put those dreams to rest and likely put his career to rest as well.
Romero was a world champion freestyle wrestler who represented Cuba for several years including two Olympic Games. Romero won the silver medal in freestyle wrestling at the 2000 Sydney Olympics and placed fourth at the 2004 Athens Olympics.
Romero's steroid positive is not a big surprise to many people. Romero clearly should have seen USADA coming for him. Rather than random unannounced testing, Vice President of Athlete Health and Performance Jeff Novitzky promised targeted testing or “intelligent testing”.
Novitzky specifically suggested that USADA would go after those athletes who look like they use steroids. Since Romero looks like a little bodybuilder in the octagon, it is no big surprise that fans have accused him of using steroids and even less of a surprise that USADA tested him.
“It’s not random testing; it’s intelligent testing, USADA’s not going to say, ‘Hey, we’re going roll the dice and whoever comes up …’ They’re going to look on everything, from tips that they may get – hell, they’ll even look at physical appearances of athletes. Does this athlete pass kind of the physical appearance ‘smell test,’ and if they don’t, hey, maybe we need to test that person a little bit more.”
Muscle profiling is clearly alive and well at USADA. The more muscular guys should be prepared. If that wasn't enough to warn Romero, the fact that his American Top Team teammate got caught using steroids should have made it clear that Romero was squarely in cross-hairs of USADA.
Teammate Gleison Tibau displayed a physique that was a little too muscular to pass USADA's “eye test”. USADA targeted him and caught him using erythropoietin (EPO) last fall.
American Top Team is obviously not doing so well with the steroids and PEDs. USADA has taken notice. We guarantee you that USADA will do everything they can to target other American Top Team fighters. One fighter, in particular, has been making waves lately with the resurgence of his career. USADA's next target is Robbie Lawler.
Source:
Doherty, D. (January 13, 2016). UFC: Yoel Romero Tests Positive for Designer Steroid. Retrieved from http://cagepages.com/2016/01/13/ufc-yoel-romero-tests-positive-designer-steroid/
