UFC veteran Viscardi Andrade was recently suspended for two years by the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) for a failed drug test.
The welterweight fighter says that he was pressured into accepting the suspension.
"On Monday, they told us to accept this, or they would stop counting this year off, and my suspension would only get longer,” Andrade said to MMA Fighting. "They told me to make a decision. I talked to my team and we decided that there was nothing we could do, so we accepted it. They asked us to sign a term admitting what happened, but we didn’t. I made it clear that I don’t accept it. That’s the situation. I was pressured (to accept the suspension). I told them I wouldn’t sign (the term) because I don't agree with the test, that it was flawed. At first, I felt they didn’t know how to handle the situation, they never had to deal with this kind of situation before."
Viscardi will be able to fight again in March 2018, as his suspension is retroactive to the March 2016 time when he failed the drug test.
Even though he has accepted the suspension, the fighter and his team have been battling the result for a year now.
"We’ve battled this result for a year,” Andrade said. "I don’t accept it, I was always blaming the lab, and they are protecting the lab. We got to a point where we asked for a letter explaining why the lab lost its credential, because they claimed it wasn’t because of false positive results like the media reported. They never sent us this letter. We insisted, asked to go to arbitration, and they were pretty clear: 'this argument you’re using, another athlete tried it and it was denied, and it won’t be different with you. You will waste your money for nothing. We’re telling you know that it will be denied.’"
Andrade has a 3-1-0 record under the UFC banner, with an overall record of 19-6-0.
