UFC bantamweight mainstay Raquel Pennington received news of a six-month suspension from USADA on Thursday morning. The news was first reported by Marc Raimondi at ESPN.com.
Raquel Pennington takes 6-month Suspension
Specifically, Pennington (11-8) announced on her social media of the forthcoming news. Following the two positive tests, the former bantamweight title challenger wrote,
“This morning, USADA will be announcing a violation I committed of the UFC anti-doping policy. Here are the facts. I went to my physician about a medical condition I was experiencing and was prescribed several medications to treat the condition. Unfortunately, I took the medications for a brief period of time, before realizing I should have checked on their status in the program. I fully cooperated with them and provided them with 100% honesty. I was not trying to cheat, skirt the rules or trying to gain a performance advantage.”
Once she realized her potential mistake, Raquel did EVERYTHING right. “Your mistakes don’t define your character. It’s what you do after you have made the mistakes, that make all the difference.” https://t.co/oo00d0SwYm
— Jeff Novitzky (@JeffNovitzkyUFC) January 28, 2021
In particular, the two drugs that violated the UFC anti-doping policy were 7-keto-DHEA and AOD-9064. Despite the positive tests, “Rocky” has fully cooperated and admitted her mistakes. Since Pennington was so cooperative, USADA officials came to the determination to reduce her sentence to six months. Prior to the mishap with USADA, Pennington was coming off a dominant unanimous decision win over Marion Reneau back in late June. The women’s bantamweight staple also competed against Holly Holm on last year’s blockbuster event headlined by Conor McGregor and Donald Cerrone.
Consequently, Pennington will eligible to compete again in six months. Without a doubt, time off for the bantamweight athlete will be a welcome change.
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