Frank Mir battled with USADA over his own innocence following a positive drug test in 2016 but ultimately faced a two year suspension for his doping infraction.
The relevance of Mir’s case came up again on Sunday because he tested positive for the same substance — oral Turinabol — that has now shown up in two separate drug tests for former UFC light heavyweight champion Jon Jones.
Jones popped for Turinabol last July following a win over Daniel Cormier and he was ultimately handed a 15-month suspension after an independent arbitrator ruled that they didn’t believe he knowingly ingested the banned substance.
Then Jones tested positive for trace amounts of the same drug on Dec. 9 but USADA ruled that it must have been a residual effect of the previous ingestion of Turinabol and not proof that he had taken the drug a second time.
Mir took to Facebook on Sunday to give details of his own case with USADA where he pleaded to go back further in his own career to test supplements that could have been the cause of his positive test but he says he was told it was impossible.
“In the spring of 2016, when USADA representatives sat in my Las Vegas kitchen and told me that the Turinabol metabolite that they said I tested positive for could only have been ingested within a window of the past several months, I vehemently proclaimed my innocence,” Mir wrote. “Having never failed any drug test throughout my career, I asked if we could go back further in the past to test any supplements that I could’ve taken, but they claimed that was both impossible and unnecessary.
“They were firm on their assertion that there was only a recent period of several months that would warrant any consideration. Now, little more than two years later, Jon Jones has tested positive for the same trace of the same banned substance, and USADA is taking the position that this same low level is in fact not a new ingestion, but something that could be the result of a residual “pulsing” effect that could potentially stay in his system “forever”. Further, they are now claiming that this phenomenon is something that they are seeing in other cases as well.”
Turinabol testing has come under fire ever since WADA (World Anti-Doping Agency) introduced the test that was developed by the same doctor from Russia, who used to help concoct ‘cocktails’ that would help athletes use performance enhancing drugs without being caught by doping tests.
All the research for Turinabol testing — even long term testing — seems to suggest a window of 40 to 50 days to find the drug in the human body but even that isn’t 100-percent confirmed science.
So Mir can’t help but question his own situation and the two years he lost of his career after USADA decided that Jones couldn’t have possibly cheated again because of the incredibly low levels of Turinabol in his system yet wouldn’t even give him the chance to go further back into his history to try and figure out how the drug got into his body.
“This latest shift in USADA’s position would seem to suggest one of two possibilities. Either they are a) offering special dispensation to Jon Jones or b) they are second guessing and subsequently “revising” the presentation of their own science,” Mir said. “Either scenario leaves myself and a number of other fighters whose careers have been similarly damaged by past testing claims to wonder what this says about USADA’s consistency and their tests’ reliability.
“Sadly, my accusation came at a time when the UFC’s partnership with USADA had not yet been subjected to the kind of doubt that now seems to further cloud it with each new instance of convoluted circumstances.”
