Dos Santos, Nogueira free to return after USADA confirms tainted supplements

A trio of Brazilian UFC fighters have been cleared to return to action by the USADA.

Former heavyweight champion Junior dos Santos and light heavyweights Antonio Rogerio Nogueira and Marcos Rogerio de Lima are free to resume competing after the UFC's anti-doping partner attributed each of their 2017 flaggings to tainted supplements produced by two compounding pharmacies in Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo, Brazil.

Compounding pharmacies typically produce their products in-house per patients' prescriptions.

Both Dos Santos and Nogueira were flagged for banned diuretic hydrochlorothiazide found in samples collected in August and September, respectively, while De Lima tested positive for the same substance and estrogen blocker anastrozole - also in August. All three fighters later provided the USADA with the supplements they deemed responsible for their failed tests, with the agency subsequently sourcing the same products from the Brazilian pharmacies and confirming they were contaminated.

Each of the fighters - who'd taken the supplements at the behest of their doctors or nutritionists - ultimately accepted six-month bans that had already expired by the case's resolution, thereby making them eligible to return to action immediately.

Dos Santos and Nogueira were set to face Francis Ngannou and Jared Cannonier at UFC 215 and UFC on FOX 26, respectively, prior to being flagged. De Lima, meanwhile, had designs on returning to heavyweight following a pair of failed cuts to 206 pounds.