Yesterday in Sacramento, California, the California State Athletic Commission approved a reduction in the suspension of UFC middleweight Chael Sonnen from his post-UFC 117 drug suspension from one year to six months. Sonnen was suspended after he tested positive for elevated testosterone levels after his failed title match with Anderson Silva. At the time, his testosterone-to-epitestosterone ratio tested at 16.9 (over the CSAC limit of 4.0), according to recently released documents.
Sonnen stated on record that he has been actively pursuing testosterone-replacement therapy since 2008 as treatment for hypergonadism, a condition in which there is hyperfunction of the gonads.
Sonnen will now be eligible for competition on March 2, 2011, but he will still be fined $2,500 for the failed drug test.
During the same hearing, Strikeforce heavyweight Josh Barnett’s request to be re-licensed in California was delayed once again. In 2009, Barnett failed a drug test for designer steroid Drostanolone and had his license to fight denied without suspension or fine, as it it wasn’t a drug test from the evening of an event.
Barnett has seen his appeal of the fight license denial delayed in the past 12 months due to various reasons (inclement weather and miscommunication among them), and arrived without legal counsel, planning to speak with commission officials to request a license renewal. When CSAC officials began to present a case against his failed test, Barnett, claiming that he was unprepared for a “trial,” denied taking steroids and requested the chance to return at a date with legal counsel.
