UFC light heavyweight Azamat Murzakhanov has accepted a six-month suspension for an anti-doping violation earlier this year.
Combat Sports Anti-Doping (CSAD) said on Monday that an out-of-competition sample taken by Murzakhanov on October 8 showed “low levels” of a metabolite of LGD 4033, a banned anabolic agent. He announced that he had tested positive. The Sports Medicine Research and Testing Laboratory (SMRTL) determined that the test failure was due to a contaminated supplement and the amount of LGD 4033 metaboites contained in the supplement. Murzakhanov’s sample would “not provide any significant performance benefit.”
Murzakhanov would normally be subject to a 90-day sanction with such a result, but because it was his second anti-doping violation in the UFC, he received a 180-day jail sentence. The 35-year-old Russian’s suspension will be retroactive to November 1, meaning he will be eligible to return to action on May 1, 2025. Murzakhanov was scheduled to face Nikita Krylov at UFC 309 on November 16th. The fight was removed from the card due to a doping violation.
Murzakhanov previously tested positive for steroid metabolites in an out-of-competition sample in 2017, prior to his UFC debut. As a result, he received a two-year suspension from USADA, the promotion’s former anti-doping partner. Murzakhanov won’t make his first Octagon appearance until March 2022 after ultimately earning a UFC contract on Dana White’s Contender Series.
‘The Professional’ has a 14-0 record during his MMA tenure, which began in 2010. His 4-0 promotion record includes wins over Alonzo Menifield, Dustin Jacoby, Devin Clark and Tafon Nchukwi.
The full statement from CSAD is below.
Combat Sports Anti-Doping (CSAD) announced today that Azamat Murzakhanov of Nalchik, Russia, has accepted a 180-day sanction for violating the UFC Anti-Doping Policy (UFC ADP).
Murzakhanov tested positive for the presence of a low-level metabolite of LGD 4033, a substance that is always prohibited in the class of anabolic agents on the UFC Prohibited List, from an out-of-competition sample taken from him on October 8, 2024. showed a reaction. A sealed bottle of the nutritional supplement that Murzakhanov allegedly used to provide this sample was obtained and sent to the Sports Medicine Research Institute, a testing facility for UFC ADP, in Salt Lake City, Utah, for analysis. Testing Laboratory (SMRTL). Analysis revealed that low levels of LGD-4033 were present in the sealed supplement, even though it was not listed on the ingredient label. SMRTL vs. CSAD: Low levels of LGD-4033 contaminants in sealed supplements and low levels of LGD-4033 metabolites in Murzakhanov samples do not confer significant performance advantages he advised. Additionally, a follow-up sample taken from Murzakhanov on October 31, 2024, prior to being notified of the adverse sample on October 8, 2024, was negative. This confirmed the timeline of when Murzakhanov took the tainted supplement and when he stopped taking it.
CSAD determined that the appropriate sanction for Murzakhanov’s adverse findings was a 90-day suspension. Even though the cause of the adverse findings was in a dietary supplement that did not list any prohibited substances on its label, the supplement was classified as a secondary drug, as all UFC athletes are taught to use exclusively. It had not been third-party tested or certified. This is Murzakhanov’s second violation under the program, as he received a previous suspension under the UFC-ADP in 2019, so his sanction has been doubled to 180 days. Murzakhanov’s suspension will begin on November 1, 2024, on which day he was notified in writing of this adverse finding by CSAD and received an interim suspension. Murzakhanov’s suspension will end in 180 days, on May 1, 2025.
