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Brazilian heavyweight Raphael Pessoa has accepted a two-year suspension handed down by the United States Anti-Doping Agency following a second violation of the UFC’s anti-doping policy.
USADA officials announced the sanction on Monday.
There were actually three separate violations “involving his use and/or attempted use of a prohibited substance, positive tests for that substance, and evasion of sample collection” that were combined into a single sanction as noted.
“Pessoa Nunes, 32, tested positive for hydrochlorothiazide (HCTZ) and its metabolites chlorothiazide and 4-amino-6-chloro-1,3-benzenedisulfonamide (ACB) as the result of urine samples collected out-of-competition on February 9, 2021, February 15, 2021, February 16, 2021, and March 4, 2021,” USADA officials wrote in a statement. “HCTZ is a Specified Substance in the class of Diuretics and Masking Agents and is prohibited at all times under the UFC Anti-Doping Policy and UFC Prohibited List. Because Pessoa Nunes was not yet notified of the positive tests until after all four samples were collected, they were treated as a single second violation.