UFC fighter Irina Alekseeva received a retroactive one-year suspension for a failed drug test, allowing her to return to competition on October 15, after delays in reporting the results by USADA led to her competing in a fight she should have been suspended for.
UFC fighter Irina Alekseeva won’t have to wait long to be cleared to fight again. The saga surrounding her failed drug test finally concluded on Tuesday.
During a monthly meeting with the Nevada Athletic Commission, Alekseeva received a one-year suspension. She tested positive for elevated levels of testosterone “consistent with the administration of testosterone of exogenous origin” from a sample collected back on June 21, 2023.
The commission made the one-year suspension retroactive to Oct. 14, 2023. Based on the date she was first notified about the test failure, Alekseeva’s suspension ends on Oct. 14, clearing her to fight again as early as Oct. 15.
She was also fined $157.04 by the commission for prosecution fees.
The strange timing surrounding Alekseeva’s suspension comes after the Combat Sports Anti-Doping (CSAD) placed blame on the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA). Delays in reporting the initial results allowed the bantamweight fighter to compete after a failed drug test.
“Alekseeva tested positive for values consistent with the administration of testosterone of exogenous origin in a urine sample collected by USADA on June 21, 2023,” CSAD officials said back in June. “However, USADA failed to report the results until Oct. 31, 2023, more than four months after collection and after Alekseeva competed in a UFC event in Las Vegas on Oct. 14.”
USADA collected two additional samples from Alekseeva before her Oct. 14 fight—on Aug. 8 and Sept. 13—that were both negative. It should be noted that when CSAD took over from USADA on Dec. 31, it requested more specific testing of those two samples that USADA had not conducted.
The results of this additional testing facilitated by CSAD were negative. Alekseeva was also tested by the Nevada Athletic Commission (NAC) on October 14, the date of her last UFC fight, and was negative.
In the end, CSAD suspended Alekseeva for one year, retroactive to the day after her last UFC fight. This meant she would be eligible to return on or after Oct. 15.
Now, the Nevada Athletic Commission has matched that same punishment with Alekseeva cleared to return once her suspension is lifted on Oct. 15.
The result in Alekseeva’s fight remains unchanged because she ultimately lost a decision to Melissa Mullins, dropping her UFC record to 1-1 overall.
At the same meeting on Tuesday, Bellator fighter JayJay Wilson was handed a nine-month suspension after testing positive for metenolone—an anabolic steroid—from an out-of-competition drug test. His suspension is set to end on Jan. 1, 2025, and he was also fined $157.04 by the commission for prosecution fees.