Dos Santos breaks silence on potential doping violation: 'Truth will prevail'

Not two days after he was flagged by the USADA, Junior dos Santos is keeping a cool head.

The former UFC heavyweight champion has broken his silence regarding a potential doping violation that got him pulled from a date with Francis Ngannou at UFC 215 on Friday, taking to Instagram to proclaim his innocence and maintain his name will inevitably be cleared.

"I'm not here to give an explanation," Dos Santos said, according to MMAjunkie. "Soon, everything will be clear to all of you and no doubt - truth will prevail. I'm here in respect for all of you guys. I just want to say that this situation is very tough for me, my team and my family. And I would never cheat. It goes against everything I stand for. I play a fair game. We will get to the bottom of this, figure out what happened, learn from it and move on. And I hope in the near future, Francis Ngannou and me can face each other and give you guys the show you were expecting. For now, thank you very much for your support. It means a lot to me, and that's why I'm here."

The UFC's anti-doping partner did not specify the nature of the illicit substance found in the sample collected from Dos Santos on Aug. 10, although his management later revealed he'd tested positive for a banned diuretic and potential masking agent known as hydrochlorothiazide, often detected in contaminated supplements.

In a statement obtained by Fansided's Matthew Wells on Saturday, the heavyweight's manager, Ana Guedes, stated low levels of the substance were found in Dos Santos' non-diluted urine test. The team is working to determine whether the hydrochlorothiazide found in the sample stemmed from a pair of supplements "Cigano" recently began taking.

We now have the official copy of Junior's August 10 urine test. The level of hydrochlorothiazide listed on his USADA result was "low." Additionally, the specific gravity reading of Junior's urine sample was 1.025, indicating that the sample was not diluted. We understand the concentrated urine sample to mean that the low level of hydrochlorothiazide in Junior's system had no diuretic effect on his sample.

We are learning about some recent anti-doping cases where low levels of hydrochlorothiazide have been the result of supplement contamination, and even contaminated ground water. A 2016 study published by the National Institutes of Health found that over-the-counter NSAIDs left hydrochlorothiazide traces

(See: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/27611956/).

Our goal now is simply to determine the unintended source of the hydrochlorothiazide. To that end, we have identified two nutritional supplements that Junior recently began using - neither of which show hydrochlorothiazide anywhere on their respective labels or ingredient lists - and are working with USADA to test both. Hopefully that gets us answers.

All drug tests that Junior has taken - both prior to and post implementation of the USADA program - have been negative, including blood and urine samples he provided on July 10 of this year. He prides himself on being a clean athlete, and looks forward to resolving this matter.

The UFC is currently seeking a replacement for Dos Santos to keep Ngannou on the upcoming card, scheduled for Sept. 9 at Rogers Place in Edmonton, Alberta.