UFC’s Rachael Ostovich suspended by USADA over tainted supplement use

The U.S. Anti-Doping agency announced Thursday that UFC women’s flyweight Rachael Ostovich has accepted a one-year sanction for violating the promotion’s anti-doping policy after she tested positive for ostarine and GW1516 metabolites.

Ostovich’s positive test stems from an out-of-competition urine sample that was collected Jan. 3. Because she received a four-month credit “due to time served under a provisional suspension in the latter half of 2019 for an atypical finding,” USADA said Ostovich is eligible to return Aug. 3.

“During an investigation into the circumstances of the positive test, Ostovich-Berdon identified a supplement she had tried, which was analyzed at the World Anti-Doping Agency-accredited laboratory in Salt Lake City,” USADA said in a statement. “Although ostarine and GW1516 were not listed on the supplement label, the analysis revealed that the product contained ostarine and GW1516, the substances for which Ostovich-Berdon tested positive. The product label listed another prohibited substance, but Ostovich-Berdon did not realize at the time that it was prohibited. Consistent with other cases with similar circumstances, USADA determined that a small reduction from the default two-year period of ineligibility was justified.

“Ostovich-Berdon received an additional reduction to the otherwise applicable period of ineligibility for her full and complete cooperation. Under the revised UFC ADP announced on November 25, 2019, a full and complete cooperation reduction may be granted in the event that an athlete demonstrates that they did not intend to enhance their performance and provided full, prompt, and truthful responses and information to all reasonable inquiries and requests for information.”

Although it was determined that Ostovich didn’t knowingly try to enhance her performance with her choice of supplement, she was still subject to a sanction because it was not UFC certified.

Ostovich, 29, joined the UFC in December 2017 after competing on Season 26 of “The Ultimate Fighter.” She won her UFC debut but has lost her two other bouts to Montana De La Rosa and Paige VanZant.

Ostovich (4-5 MMA, 1-2 UFC) hasn’t competed since the submission loss to VanZant at UFC on ESPN+ 1 in January 2019. It was Ostovich’s first fight after she was the victim of a domestic violence incident with her husband, Arnold Berdon.