On Wednesday morning, TJ Dillashaw posted a statement on Instagram announcing that the New York State Athletic Commission (NYSAC) had found an “adverse finding” in his drug test after the fight with Henry Cejudo in January. Dillashaw said he was voluntarily relinquishing the UFC bantamweight title as a result. It was later confirmed by ESPN’s Ariel Helwani that Dillashaw has been suspended for one year and fined $10,000 by the NYSAC. The suspension is retroactive to January 19th, which was the night of his KO loss to Cejudo in Brooklyn.
The test was administered to Dillashaw on January 18th, the day before his fight with Cejudo. Under the new USADA policy, they do not reveal when a fighter has been flagged and it was Dillashaw voluntarily disclosing the news about the finding in his drug test. The substance found in Dillashaw’s test has not been disclosed.
Below is Dillashaw’s complete statement:
To all my fans, I wanted to be the first one to let you know that USADA and the NYSAC have informed me of an adverse finding in a test taken for my last fight. While words can’t even begin to express how disappointed I am at this time, please know that I’m working with my team to understand what has occurred and how to resolve this situation as quickly as possible. Out of fairness and respect to the rest of my division, I’ve informed the UFC that I’ll be voluntarily relinquishing my title while I deal with this matter. I want to thank all of you in advance for the support.
At this time, it is unknown how the vacant title will be decided.
Following a report from ESPN, the UFC has announced that Donald Cerrone will fight Al Iaquinta in the main event in Ottawa, Ontario on Saturday, May 4th. After moving up to welterweight in 2016 and going 6-4, Cerrone returned to lightweight this past January and defeated Alexander Hernandez for his second consecutive victory. Iaquinta has won 6 of his last 7 fights dating to September 2014. The lone blemish during that stretch was against Khabib Nuramgomedov at UFC 223 last April that Iaquinta accepted on 24-hours’ notice when Iaquinta was scheduled to fight Paul Felder on that card and ended up in the main event for a title fight after Max Holloway was pulled from the fight by the NYSAC. Iaquinta rebounded after the loss to Nurmagomedov with a unanimous decision over Kevin Lee last December.
The Democrat and Chronicle reported that the main event of the UFC’s Fight Night event in Rochester, New York on May 18th will be a welterweight fight between Rafael dos Anjos and Kevin Lee. Following a loss to Al Iaquinta, Lee is moving up to welterweight for this fight. Dos Anjos moved up to welterweight himself in 2017 and won his first three fights at the weight class but is coming off decision losses to Colby Covington and Kamaru Usman over the past year.