Alexander Shlemenko failed after fight drug test. Suspended 3 years, fine $10k
source | MMAJunkie.com
In a 7-0 vote, the California State Athletic Commission today suspended ex-Bellator middleweight champ Alexander Shlemenko for three years, fined him $10,000, and overturned his knockout win over Melvin Manhoef at Bellator 133.
“Our job here is to protect the fighters, period,” said CSAC commissioner John Frierson during a hearing today in Los Angeles. “The guy that he knocked out, he could have killed him.”
The CSAC this past week recommended the penalty, by far the harshest punishment of an MMA athlete since it started regulating the sport, when it found steroid oxandrolone and oxandrolone metabolites as well as a testosterone-to-epitestosterone (T/E) ratio of 50-1 in Shlemenko’s post-fight urine test (the commission’s limit is 4-1).