UFC heavyweight suspended until 2028 after failed drug test

Ultimate Fighting Championship heavyweight Mohammed Usman could not escape anti-doping investigation.The UFC announced this on Thursday in a joint statement with drug testing agency Combat Sports Anti-Doping (CSAD) that Usman has been suspended after testing positive for an exogenous source of testosterone. He was flagged on September 8, 2025, resulting in his removal from his fight against Valter Walker at UFC Fight Night 261 last October. Additionally, Usman gave a false reason for his failed test, which resulted in additional sanctions.

As a result of that test and his admission of prior use of the substance and of BPC-157 – an unapproved peptide Designed to improve the recovery process, Usman will be suspended until April 2028. Normally a fighter would receive a two-year prison sentence, but Usman added “aggravating circumstances” by trying to falsely claim its source and regular use. So the CSAD issued a sentence of two years and six months, because the heavyweight eventually saw his use.

Usman eventually took responsibility

CSAD’s statement reads as follows:

“Combat Sports Anti-Doping (CSAD) today announced that Mohammed Usman, of Coral Springs, Florida, has accepted a period of ineligibility of two years and six months for violations of the UFC Anti-Doping Policy (UFC ADP).“Usman tested positive for the presence of testosterone, a substance prohibited at all times in the class of anabolic substances on the UFC’s banned list, from an out-of-competition sample collected from him on September 8, 2025 in Coral Springs, Florida, USA. Usman was previously removed from his scheduled fight in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in October last year due to the return of these positive tests days before the event. Usman eventually admitted to the CSAD that he had used testosterone in the lead-up to the Rio event, as well as the previous use of testosterone and the all-time banned peptide, BPC-157, earlier in 2025.

“Although Usman ultimately took responsibility for the above details, he did not do so in a timely manner and not until CSAD confronted him with evidence they had independently collected during a detailed investigation into his use of these multiple banned substances, as well as his attempt to mislead CSAD with a false explanation. According to the UFC ADP, if a UFC athlete uses multiple substances as Usman did and engages in deceptive or obstructive conduct to avoid adjudication of an anti-doping policy violation, as he did, Then The existence of aggravating factors can double a standard suspension, because Usman ultimately admitted to the prohibited conduct, but the CSAD determined that an addition of six months to the standard two-year suspension for the use of these substances was appropriate for these aggravating factors.

“Usman’s accepted suspension began on October 9, 2025, the day he was informed of the positive test, removed from the Rio de Janeiro card and provisionally suspended. The suspension will end on April 9, 2028.”