UFC fighter Raquel Pennington has been given a six-month suspension by the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency after self-reporting the use of two banned substances. USADA announced the suspension on Thursday.
Pennington’s suspension comes after the use of 7-keto-DHEO and AOD-9064. Per USADA’s statement, Pennington took the substances after being prescribed them “by a doctor help treat a medical condition.” Once realizing that they were not allowed under the testing program, she notified the agency.
Because of Pennington’s transparency with the agency, her suspension is six-months as opposed to a year or more.
“Pennington was eligible for a reduction to the period of ineligibility based on her forthright declaration prior to sample collection and for her Full and Complete Cooperation,” said the statement made public by USADA on Thursday.
Pennington released her own statement on the suspension, clarifying that she had no intent to use the substances to gain a competitive edge.
“As USADA’s forthcoming statement will show, I fully cooperated with them and provided them with 100% honesty. I was not trying to cheat, skirt the rules or trying to gain a performance advantage,” said Pennington via Twitter.
The suspension started on November 17th of 2020, when Pennington first notified USADA about the substance usage.
Pennington’s last fight was in June of 2020, where she defeated Marion Reneau via decision.
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