Geronimo Dos Santos, pulled from UFC153
by Ariel Helwani | source: mmafighting.com
Heavyweight Geronimo dos Santos was set to make his UFC debut Saturday night in his native Brazil, however, a pre-fight drug test forced him off the card and subsequently put his MMA career in jeopardy.
According to dos Santos’ manager Alex Davis, the Brazilian big man tested positive for Hepatitis B last week during a routine pre-fight blood test administered by the UFC, who, since there is no athletic commission in Brazil, tested all the UFC 153 fighters. The news was first reported by Guilherme Cruz of Tatame.com and Marc Ratner, the UFC’s VP of regulatory affairs, confirmed it on Thursday.
According to PubMed Health, Hepatitis B is caused by irritation and swelling of the liver due to infection. Davis said dos Santos will need to undergo chemotherapy to rid himself of the disease, but since the treatment is very expensive, he didn’t know when dos Santos would start doing it. So for now, the Brazilian heavyweight’s UFC career has been put on hold.