Texas Lifts Cortney Casey’s Three-Month Suspension From UFC 211
UFC strawweight fighter Cortney Casey is free at last. After the UFC and Casey went public about the controversial doping case, the sanctions imposed have been reversed.
It was recently announced that the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation lifted the three-month suspension on Casey. Also, her win over Jessica Aguilar at UFC 211 has also been given back to her after it was overturned to a no contest.
According to several reports, Casey’s suspension was lifted on the internal Association of Boxing Commissions and Combative Sports (ABC) database. It should be noted that the database has yet to change the no contest next to the record of her fight against Aguilar. However, it should be shortly.
Casey failed drug tests from her bout with Aguilar back on May 13th with what the commission deemed as an elevated testosterone-to-epitestosterone ratio, which was considered a failure and the state issued the sanctions later that month.
This was when all heck broke lose as UFC vice president of athlete health and performance Jeff Novitzky and other anti-doping experts came out and stated an elevated testosterone-to-epitestosterone ratio does not mean an athlete is using a prohibited substance. If it is elevated, then that is when WADA will do advanced testing.
Both the UFC and Casey requested that the commission should have her “B” sample tested at the WADA-accredited SMRTL lab in Salt Lake City. When the results came back clean of any substances that are banned following an isotope-ratio mass spectrometry (IRMS) test, she was cleared. The UFC footed the bill of $469 for the advanced screening process.
“After reexamination of the documents in our possession and careful examination of the Sample B results, your 90-day suspension is lifted effective June 29, 2017, the enforcement case dropped with no further action taken, and the bout ‘win’ reinstated on your record,” said the document sent to Casey by TDLR executive director Brian Francis.
In the letter, Francis apologized for the delay in his decision, but he made it clear that he “wanted to have all the information available” for consideration. He also stated that the commission “followed Department protocol” in issuing her the sanctions after the test results showed an elevated T:E ratio.
