Nijem, Two Others Popped By NSAC

Photo by Brandon Magnus/Zuffa LLC/Zuffa LLC via Getty Images

It’s been a rocky 2019 for Professional Fighters League (PFL), the organization formerly known as World Series of Fighting (WSOF), and we still have a little over a month to go before its year-end finale inside Madison Square Garden in New York City.

First we had Josh Copeland tossed for domestic violence, then we saw manager Ali Abdelaziz suspended for brawling on location, then Daniel Pineda got popped by Nevada State Athletic Commission (NSAC) and bounced from the New Year’s Eve card.

What else could go wrong? Quite a bit, according to ESPN.

Joining Pineda in the NSAC doghouse are PFL veterans Glaico Franca and Luis Rafael Laurentino (stanozolol), as well as Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) standout Ramsey Nijem (marijuana), who rose to fame on season 13 of The Ultimate Fighter (TUF).

“I was caught by surprise, because I’m a 100 percent clean athlete, so you don’t expect to fail a drug test,” Franca told MMA Fighting. “I will prove that this stanozolol metabolite that showed up in my urine test came from a contaminated supplement.”

Unlike Pineda, who was competing for a $1 million prize, Franca, Laurentino, and Nijem were all eliminated from the tournament, so any potential disciplinary action — including a suspension — will have no effect on the remainder of the promotion’s 2019 fight campaign.

NSAC has scheduled a hearing for Dec. 18.