CABMMA responds to Hallmann failed PED charges – It’s pee
Piotr Hallmann failed a PED test at UFN 51 and complained about irregularities in the testing process. However, the test he complained about is not the one he failed.
Mixed martial arts is a little like a brutal pinball game, but few have been bounced around like Piotr Hallmann was at UFC Fight Night: Bigfoot vs. Arlovski. He lost a split decision to Gleison Tibau, and suffered a broken jaw in the process. Then he won a $50,000 fight of the night performance bonus. Then he tested positive for the steroid drostanolone, and lost the bonus, and was suspended for nine months.
In an interview with John Joe O’Regan for BloodyElbow, Hallmann flatly denied that he had taken any PEDs. Further, he attacked the testing process, describing a chaotic post-fight scene backstage in Brazil.
“I know that mistakes have been made by the commission which they even admitted,” said Hallmann. “Right after my fight when I walked back to my dressing room a very loud person who couldn’t identify himself was shouting: “Doping! Doping!” and speaking in broken English… finally it was clear that I needed to be escorted to a room where I was being tested, so like always I complied and gave my blood.
“At that moment I was badly injured and was waiting for transportation to the hospital. All of a sudden one of the people that tested me at the event drove all the way to the hospital telling us that something went wrong with the testing but at that time I was in extreme pain as the medical team was treating my broken jaw.
“The man understood and saw that it wasn’t the best moment to do a second test as I was being injected with some painkillers. So the man apologized for the mistake and just left.”
“I hope that there is a way to appeal this as my career is now in serious danger and my name has been tainted.”
However, MMA’s go-to man in Brazil Guilherme Cruz for MMAFighting spoke with Cristiano Sampaio, COO of the regulating body in Brazil, Comissao Atletica Brasileira de MMA (CABMMA) Cruz reports that the test that caught Hallmann was not the post-fight blood test, but rather was the pre-fight urine test. Passing a urine test for steroids at a known day and time is widely considered to be more of an IQ test than a PED test.
“We test every fighter on the card when they arrive at the arena on fight day,” said Sampaio. “After the fight, we randomly choose four fighters, or pick four fighters, to do post-fight blood tests. For this event, we picked the main and co-main event fighters to test for HGH and testosterone. In Piotr’s case, he tested positive (for drostanolone) in his pre-fight urine test.”
“He said we admitted to committing mistakes, but we never did that. I’m the person who contacts fighters and managers, and I never said that.”
“He has the right to appeal. If he wants to appeal the result, I will send the request to the UCLA Olympic Lab and they will test the second urine sample. If he’s talking about our collecting procedures, I’ll ask ABCD to send him a report of the whole procedure. But if he’s questioning our integrity and responsibility as a regulation body in Brazil, we will have a response for him. I hope that’s not the case.”
Sampaio told Cruz that the samples were tested at the WADA-accredited UCLA Olympic Analytical Laboratory, and were obtained by a doping control officer credentialed by WADA and Brazilian Agency of Doping Control (ABCD). Sampaio said Hallmann’s urine sample was tested twice, and failed twice.
