USADA Shoots Down Costa Claim

Photo by Jeff Bottari/Zuffa LLC/Zuffa LLC via Getty Images

A report came out last week, on Yahoo! Sports of all places, claiming that Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) middleweight contender, Paulo Costa, was the promotion’s most drug-tested fighter in all of 2019.

Except he wasn’t.

That’s according to United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA), who would probably be on top of such things considering they’re the ones who are doing the actual testing and keep records of when and where it takes place.

Bloody Elbow with the facts:

Its list reveals that it is shelved bantamweight fighter Sean O’Malley who was the most tested in 2019 at 26 times. Following him are former featherweight champion Jose Aldo and welterweight fighter Chance Rencountre, who were both tested 17 times and didn’t test positive for any banned substances.

Costa is tied with four other fighters at No. 3.

No word yet on when the injured Brazilian — fresh off his win over Yoel Romero — will make his return to the Octagon but when he does, expect “The Eraser” to be on a very short list of middleweight title contenders.

See the current Top 15 right here.