“Greatest colossal mistake,” Jeff Novitzky opens up about USADA flagging Islam Makhachev for doping violation in 2016 – SportsVikings

Islam Makhachev has accomplished a lot in his MMA career. Despite his storied run, the Dagestani didn’t always have smooth sailing. Islam Makhachev’s positive test in 2016 had people criticizing him. It turns out it was more a failure of the system than of the athlete. That’s the word from UFC Senior Vice President of Athlete Health and Performance Jeff Novitzky ahead of UFC 302.

The lightweight champion faces Dustin Poirier in his third title defense. On Wednesday at the UFC 302 pre-fight Media Day, Novitzky presented him with a 50-time perfect test jacket. Before that, though, Jeff Novitzky explained why the drug test failure against Drew Dober could not be credited as Makhachev’s fault.

Islam did have an issue back in 2016…I actually talked with him and his team last week and I said, ‘I think we need to bring this up.’ …And they agreed…In 2016, USADA, who ran our program…put it [Meldonium] on our prohibited list. He had a medical procedure back in 2014. He submitted documents that he used it under that….in my opinion, one of the greatest, colossal mistakes in anti-doping. It affected not only Islam but several other UFC athletes and hundreds of other amateur Olympic athletes.
Jeff Novitzky to assembled media scrum at UFC 302 pre-fight Media Day conference

Makhachev, then 24, withdrew from the UFC on FOX 16 weigh-in day. Despite the Eagles MMA fighter denying fault for consuming Meldonium for frequent ventricular arrhythmia, he faced the consequences. USADA, the UFC’s anti-doping organization, suspended him for three months. USADA has always had a contentious relationship with fighters, sometimes their own making. However, Novitzky says the anti-doping authority was at fault for this.

The 32-year-old has supplanted the 49-count record and joins an elite list of fighters with more than 50 successful tests. Clearing his name in the eyes of the MMA community remains a positive reinforcement for the champion ahead of a record-tying title defense against Dustin Poirier. At present, not everything might be working for Makhachev.

Dustin Poirier has three unusual “UFC curses” working in his favor at UFC 302

Islam Makhachev is at the zenith of the 155-pound mark. A lifelong Sambo practitioner, he handles top-tier opponents with relative ease. Ahead of UFC 302, Dustin Poirier has remained confident of winning the title. Moreover, MMA fans believe three unusual and off-beat ‘UFC Curses’ are working in his favor. While said curses do not ‘actually’ matter in technique, many fighters do still fall prey.

Islam Makhachev has roadblocks in his third defense of the undisputed gold (Source: agfight.com/X)

There’s the one that the MMA crowd dubs the ‘Paulo Costa Curse’ – whenever the Brazilian middleweight features in a card, the headlining champion loses out on the gold. Prime upsets aligning to ‘The Eraser’ (apt name) include (UFC 298) Alexander Volkanovski, (UFC 278) Kamaru Usman. Also (UFC 241) Daniel Cormier, and (UFC 226) Stipe Miocic. Three champions, Michael Bisping, Cody Garbrandt, and Joanna Jedrzejczyk, at UFC 217 lost their belt consecutively. It all started with Jose Aldo at UFC 212.