Last month, it was revealed that Frank Mir tested positive for oral turiabol metabolites – an anabolic steroid – for his in-competition drug test relating to UFC Fight Night: Mir vs. Hunt.
Mir, who lost via first round KO to ‘Super Samoan’, hinted that tainted kangaroo meat in Australia was perhaps responsible for his failed drug test, and the two-time heavyweight champion is using the same argument to defend his ‘B’ sample, which also flagged for performance-enhancing drugs.
Mir cited NFL lineman Duane Brown on his Phone Booth Fighting podcast (per MMA Fighting), whose positive drug test for clenbuterol stemmed from tainted beef he ate in Mexico.
“Giving the animals [drugs] is not really unheard of, especially that — turinabol is extremely popular in Australia,” Mir said. “So to give it to the animals to bulk them up, that way you make more money when it comes to bring that animal in to be butchered. It sounds awful, but I’m listening to it, trying to go back, trying to figure that out.
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“As somebody that doesn’t have access to the laboratories that the NFL has access to, and I don’t want [a failed test] to happen to anybody else, but it’s basically going to be a situation where it has to occur to a few other guys and then maybe something will be spotted. But right now, me being the lone guy that came out of the card with that situation to happen with metabolites, I don’t see a situation where they are going to really look into any further, and where would I even begin to try to figure it out.”
Mir is looking at facing a two-year suspension from the United States Anti-Doping Agency, which could signal a controversial end to an otherwise honorable career. The 36-year-old is frustrated with the results, and questions whether the ‘B’ sample testing process was conducted professionally.
“But here’s my thought on that: you and I work for a lab, you do a test on a guy and let’s say you messed up, that somehow it came back the wrong test. Now I’m your co-worker and I’m going to run the test on the same thing. It came out of our lab, we work for the same company – this lab – even if I found that you made an error, am I really going to go ahead and go, ‘oh man, hey, you know that guy you just got suspended for two years and might have ended his career? You screwed up. Our whole lab messed up. Oh my God, yeah, let’s go ahead and let’s bring that to light real quick.’
“I would think having a test at the same lab is a conflict of interest.”
Mir is 2-2 in his last four and has amassed an overall record of 18-11. The Las Vegas-based fighter is one of the most decorated champions in the sport and is a likely UFC Hall of Famer candidate.
This article was written by Lewis Mckeever from SB Nation and was legally licensed through the NewsCred publisher network.
