Today USADA announced that an independent arbitrator handed veteran MMA fighter Josh Barnett a reprimand after testing positive for ostarine following an out-of-competition test conducted on December 9, 2016.
The drug was traced back to a contaminated supplement.
USADA argued for a lengthy suspension trying to hold Barnett’s past doping violations against him. The arbitrator dismissed this argument noting the circumstances surrounding Barnett’s past violation preceded the UFC/USADA anti-doping program and did not meet the Program’s contractual requirements to make the recent failed test a “second violation”.
The arbitrator determined that Barnett exercised a very high level of diligence when ingesting the product therefore a punishment on the low end of the available range was warranted. In describing Barnett’s level of care and handing out a reprimand Arbitrator McLaren provided the following reasons:
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