Anderson Silva vs. Nick Diaz

UFC middleweight fighter Nick Diaz was handed a 5-year suspension by the Nevada State Athletic Commission this Monday.

The decision addressed Diaz testing positive for marijuana metabolites after his UFC 183 fight against Anderson Silva, on January 31.

The decision came after a 3+ hours hearing where Diaz pleaded the 5th Amendment and kept his silence before the members of the NAC.

One of the commissioners, Pat Lundvall, even proposed a lifetime ban for Diaz for his repeated positive results for marijuana.

Diaz was also fined in 30% of his $500,000 fight purse for the positive test.

Anderson Silva also tested positive after UFC 183 and received a 1-year suspension for the presence of Drostanolone metabolites after a hearing on August 13.

In his defense, the Brazilian argued that sexual performance enhancing drugs were to blame for the positive result.

The Long Beach Pyramid at the 2014 Worlds Photo by Dan Rod

The IBJJF announced this Friday, August 7, it altered the standings of the divisions that had athletes disqualified due to anti-doping violations and the World Championship.

It has happened three times since the United States Anti-Doping Agency started performing tests on the world champions in 2013.

Gabi Garcia (2013) – Found not at fault for the presence of clomiphene (lost gold medal in the black belt open class and silver medal in the heavyweight division).

Braulio Estima (2014) – Found with the presence of Methylhexaneamine (suspended for two years and lost the gold medal at the medium-heavy division).

Felipe Pena (2014) – Found with elevated levels of testosterone (suspended for one year and lost gold medal at the heavyweight division).

The IBJJF released the following statement regarding the matter:

According to IBJJF’s agreement with USADA and the anti-doping policy, IBJJF will accept sanctions determined by USADA.

In the event that a sanction results in a loss of title, the rule by IBJJF to follow in reassigning podium positions is listed below:

-The athlete that placed second (lost to the positive doping athlete) will be declared the 1^st place winner

-The athlete that placed third (lost to the positive doping athlete) will be declared the 2^nd place winner.

-The fourth place athlete, who lost due to the positive doping athlete in the quarter-final, will be moved up to 3^rd place.

– The athlete who lost in the semi-final against the “newly promoted first place athlete” will remain in the third place position.

By doing so, we will promote once, every athlete who lost due to the disqualified athlete. In turn this will give us a full standard IBJJF podium (1 first place, 1 second place, and 2 third place winners).

With that, the revised standings for the divisions that had athletes disqualified are now as follows.

2013 World Jiu Jitsu IBJJF Championship – Black Belt Adult Female Open Class division

First – Beatriz de Oliveira Mesquita – Gracie Humaita

Second –  Luiza Monteiro Moura da Costa – PSLPB Cicero C.

Third – Tammy Griego – Gracie Barra

Third – Luanna Alzuguir Marton Moraes – Alliance

2013 World Jiu Jitsu IBJJF Championship – Black Belt Adult Female Heavy weight

First – Andresa Correa – Alliance

Second –  Maria do Carmo Paixão Teixeira – De La Riva JJ

Third – Luzia Carmem Santana P. Fernandes – Gracie Barra

2014 World Jiu Jitsu IBJJF Championship – Black Belt Adult Male Medium Heavy division

First – Rômulo Claudio Barral – Gracie Barra

Second –  Murilo Silva Ferreira de Santana – Barbosa Jiu Jitsu

Third – Gustavo Ramos Campos – Atos Jiu-Jitsu

Third – Thiago Sa Fortes  – CheckMat

2014 World Jiu Jitsu IBJJF Championship – Black Belt Adult Male Heavydivision

Fisrt – Andre Luiz Leite Galvão – Atos Jiu-Jitsu

Second – Dimitrius Soares Souza – Alliance

Third – Rafael Lovato Jr. – Ribeiro Jiu-Jitsu

Third – Nivaldo de Oliveira – CheckMat Int.

With the changes in the standings, there were also changes in the overall points count for the teams.

In 2014, Atos Jiu-Jitsu earned six extra points for Andre Galvão’s title, but that was not enough to overcome Alliance, that also had two points added when Dimitrius Souza became the new 2nd place athlete and added two points to the team’s count.

Here are the new standings for teams after the result changes:

2013 – Adult Female

1 – Alliance – 62

2 – CheckMat – 45

3 – Gracie Humaita – 38

2014 – Adult Male

1 – Alliance – 99

2 – Atos Jiu-Jitsu – 97

3 – Gracie Barra – 57

The IBJJF will hold new medal ceremonies for the new standings in the near future.

Bernardo Faria at the 2015 Worlds

The United States Anti-doping Agency confirmed that Bernardo Faria was clean of any prohibited substances at the 2015 Worlds.

The black belt open class  and superheavy champion received an email message this Monday with the good news from theUSADA.

Faria reacted to the news on his social media channels:

“As an athlete and as a person my biggest pride is to know that everything I’ve ever accomplished- I did without the use of any performance enhancing drugs. This is the letter I just received from the USADA saying I tested clean at the World Championships in 2015. I was born like this, I have lived like this & I’ll die like this,” wrote the champion.

Heavyweight champion Xande Ribeiro also received a letter from the USADA saying nothing illegal was found on his sample after the Worlds.

The Long Beach Pyramid

A series of doubts within the Jiu-Jitsu community have surfaced recently regarding the anti-doping test process at the World Jiu-Jitsu Championship. GRACIEMAG asked three questions to the IBJJF to clarify the issues.

GRACIEMAG: When does IBJJF get to know about a positive result and why does the IBJJF takes so long to release information about the sanction?

IBJJF: The IBJJF has an agreement with USADA, who is the independent anti-doping organization that the IBJJF has engaged to run the program, in which the IBJJF upholds the sanctions decided by USADA whenever an athlete has been found to have committed an anti-doping rule violation. By allowing USADA to run the anti-doping program for its events, the IBJJF adheres to USADA’s policies. As part of this anti-doping program, the IBJJF may not allow athletes who have tested positive to compete in its events while the case is pending in order to avoid any other title to be challenged. This is to insure the integrity of the competition and the rights of all competitors. The adjudication process must provide full due process to the athlete, which means the sanctioning process can take some time, as the athlete is provided the opportunity to contest the laboratory findings and present a defense to the alleged doping offense. Until USADA has reached a decision on the sanction, the IBJJF cannot release any information about the case and cannot comment about the results with the athlete.  In addition, the IBJJF does not get to know the details of the process. Regarding Mr. Pena’s case, the IBJJF received the news about the final decision the same day that USADA posted its press release, and not any time before then.

Is there any way for BJJ fans to get to know the results from USADA tests?

Yes, anyone can subscribe to USADA’s news releases (www.usada.org/news) or follow them on social media to be informed of any sanctions.

And what about the first place title? Does the IBJJF plan to consecrate the second place as the winner in case an athlete is tested positive in an event?

Yes, for the future, we have been studying the possibility to have the second place being consecrated as the first place, in case the gold medalist loses its title due to an anti-doping sanction. We are studying the possibilities available within the agreement that the IBJJF has with USADA and also about what has happened in the past when different sports had to handle the same situation.  It’s important for the IBJJF to study the most fair and correct decisions about this matter because we understand and value the importance of a clean environment for our sport.

Bráulio Estima no Mundial 2014. Foto: Ivan Trindade/GRACIEMAG

O faixa-preta Bráulio Estima revelou nessa quarta-feira que foi avisado há dois meses e meio, pela Agência Americana Anti-Doping (USADA), de que uma substância proibida foi encontrada na amostra de urina dele coletada após o Mundial 2014.

Segundo Bráulio, a substância é a metilhexaneamina, um ingrediente comum em bebidas pré-malhação.

Ainda de acordo com Bráulio, ele aceitou a suspensão de dois anos de competições e a anulação de seus resultados no Mundial.
Bráulio foi o campeão mundial meio-pesado ao fechar com Romulo Barral, também da Gracie Barra.

“O problema é que não sei qual foi exatamente a bebida que eu tomei, então não pude dizer a eles qual tinha sido, sob risco de pegar uma suspensão ainda pior. Se eu soubesse, podia ter pegado uma pena mais leve de 60 a 90 dias de suspensão, já que foi meu primeiro teste positivo”, disse-nos Bráulio.

Sobre sua reação à notícia, disse Bráulio: “Primeiramente, foi um choque. Eu nunca tomei bebidas pré-malhação. Se eu nunca usei antes, por que usaria antes do Mundial? Primeiro achei que o resultado podia ter sido causado por um spray nasal que eu estava usando antes do Mundial, mas não foi. Então, lembrei que, depois da semifinal contra Murilo Santana, e sabendo que o Romulo Barral também estava na final, comecei a festejar e tomei sim algumas bebidas energéticas que alguns amigos estavam tomado na Pirâmide. Na minha cabeça, eu achava que não tinha que lutar mais, então não seria um problema. Fui descuidado, eu sei.

“Chorei muito, mas agora estou mais calmo. Perdi meu título e minha entrada no Hall da Fama do Jiu-Jitsu, e isso doeu muito, mas sei que as pessoas me conhecem e conhecem minha abordagem ao esporte. Tenho 50 faixas-pretas e nunca falei com nenhum deles sobre tomar nada ilegal para ganhar uma competição. O problema é que nós, lutadores de Jiu-Jitsu, não somos bem educados sobre o doping, já que os testes são novidade.

“A suspensão provavelmente será imposta começando em 1º de agosto de 2014, e assim só vou poder competir no Mundial 2017. Já te digo agora que, se eu estiver em forma para competir, vou estar lá.”

A USADA não divulgou declaração oficial sobre o caso de Bráulio, e a IBJJF reiterou que não vai comentar nenhum assunto relacionado a testes de drogas antes do anúncio oficial da USADA.

The picture above shows the new official standings for the adult female black belt division at the 2013 World Championship.

Gabi Garcia’s name was scraped both from the heavyweight division and the open class.

With that, the open class division remains without a champion and the heavyweight division shows no second place finisher.

The action was taken by the IBJJF following the USADA announcement that Gabi tested positive for Clomiphene after the 2013 Worlds.

The USADA accepted Gabi’s arguments and determined she had not fault or acted negligently in any way to  contribute to the result being positive.

Gabi was not suspended from the sport, but as an automatic sanction lost the results for the 2013 Worlds.

Here you can read the announcement from the USADA.

Here you can read Garcia’s statement on the matter.

Here you can read the IBJJF’s statement on the case.

The IBJJF has posted an official statement on its website regarding the USADA announcement that Gabrielle Garcia was found at a no-fault positive test result for Clomiphene after the 2013 World Jiu-Jitsu championship.

The statement confirms that Gabi will lose her results for the 2013 World Jiu-Jitsu Championship (open class gold medal and heavyweight silver medal).

The statement also confirms that Garcia is eligible for competition.

Read the statement

ANTI-DOPING RESULTS UPDATES FOR 2013 WORLD JIU-JITSU CHAMPIONSHIP

27/03/2014

While we are not a WADA Code signatory, IBJJF recognizes the importance of clean competition, and has taken an unusually proactive stance in implementing an anti-doping program on behalf of clean athletes and the integrity of our sport, which includes adherence to the WADA Prohibited List. 

No one ever wants to see a rules violation, but we are all committed to, and fully stand behind, the anti-doping program and what it represents for fair and honorable competition, and for clean athletes.

In this case, it was determined through the full and fair legal results management process that there was a credible explanation for the presence of clomiphene in Ms. Gabrielle Lemos Garcia’s sample, and that the athlete was found not to be at fault.

She has accepted the findings, and the loss of results will be carried out by the IBJJF. Her eligibility for competition has not been affected.

We are committed to ensuring that our athletes, our sponsors, our fans, and all of those who love Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu can have the confidence that we will carry out the highest level of professionalism and integrity.

Read the statement at IBJJF.com

Buchecha was drugs free at the 2013 Pan

The 2013 Pan ultra-heavyweight and absolute black belt champion was clean of any prohibited substances.

Marcus “Buchecha” Almeida released earlier today in his Facebook page the letter he got from USADA.

The text says that he was PEDs free during the 2013 Pan.

Buchecha commented on the good news: “I asked to be the first one to be tested, so here it is! Respect the sport, hard training is the secret!!”

More results should surface in the next days.

So far, Andre Galvão, Gabi Garcia and Buchecha were cleared by the Anti0-Doping agency.

USADA letter says Gabi is PED free

After Andre Galvão, another 2013 Pan champion got a letter from the USADA (US Anti-Doping Agency) with some great news.

The female heavyweight and absolute black belt winner, Gabrielle Garcia, is in the clear for any performance enhancing substances, according to the letter.

Gabi posted the letter in her Facebook page this Sunday.

To GRACIEMAG, she said: “I have always had to prove to other people a lot of things in my career. People seem to forget that I was always big, but I lost many times before I became the athlete I am today. I lost to Ana Laura Cordeiro, to Ana Carol Lebre, to Lana Stefanac. Today, I train to overcome my limits because I want to be number 1. First they said I had no technique, then they said I was too big and after that they said I was on the juice. People give no value to hard training and to everything I give up to be a champion. I deserve to be a champion and I sincerely expect that all the people that talked about me and judged me are now sorry and start thinking about what they say before they say it. I showed them that my doping is my will power. If I have to be tested after the Worlds again, I will, but I hope that people start respecting me as an athlete that trains and dedicates to the sport. I know they will come with other excuses, but if I was going to care about all that people say, I would have abandoned the sport a long time ago.”

In the next days, the USADA must release all the other results from the athletes tested after the 2013 Pan.

Caio Terra, champion and tested in Irvine, one of the major supporters of the drug testing. Photo: Ivan Trindade / GracieMag.com

Professors requested and the IBJJF worked seriously to implant the drug testing for the first time in Jiu-Jitsu. In partnership with the agency United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA), the tests were promoted for the first time during Pan 2013 in Irvine, Calif. last weekend.

Because of the contract, the Federation staff can’t talk about the athletes selected for the urine test. However, the champions commented on it, despite the initial strangeness.

“It was a bit embarrassing, because of the presence of a woman there watching you. But they are right, this is the way,” praised Gabi Garcia, one of the athletes who was seen heading for the test.

Other names were the absolute champion Marcus Buchecha, Andre Galvao, Roberto Tussa, Caio Terra, Rafa and Gui Mendes, Luiza Monteiro and Vanessa Oliveira.

Featherweight athlete and bronze medalist Augusto Tanquinho talked about the draw process: “They randomly selected the categories of black belt, not the athletes. So when we had the result of the champions of each, they were called for the test.”

For some athletes, the most uncomfortable part of the exam was not being able to see some of the finals, since they were being tested.

“I liked the initiative. I expected to be tested, but I was not drawn this time. It is better for the competitors and clearer to the public. In Jiu-Jitsu, nothing replaces hard work,” praised Michael Langhi, lightweight champion.

The USADA, which conducts tests in accordance with the international rules of the IOC, has examined athletes in the Olympic and Paralympic Games since 2000 in the U.S. The agency will report test results to athletes when they are completed.