Sean O’Malley has been handed another retroactive suspension of nine months, which will allow him to make his UFC return in March.
The Nevada State Athletic Commision confirmed the ban after O’Malley tested positive for metabolites in multiple drug tests.
The ban backdates to May 25 2019, meaning O’Malley will be cleared for his UFC 248 bout with Jose Quinonez.
‘Sugar’ is also ordered to pay around $900 in attorney’s fees and fund random drug tests until March 6.
Flagged
The bantamweight was flagged by USADA in September 2018, when traces of ostarine showed in samples he provided.
He denied purposely ingesting any prohibited ingredients.
In April 2019, O’Malley was one of four UFC fighters to accept six-month suspensions for flagged drugs tests.
Accidental
USADA recently handed O’Malley a retroactive six-month suspension, but ruled the flagged tests as accidental.
In a statement, USADA said: “His two positives, as well as additional positives collected after August 12, 2019, were treated as a single violation”
“The pattern of low urinary ostarine concentrations observed in multiple samples provided by O’Malley was consistent with exposure to ostarine as a contaminant.”
Cleared
O’Malley’s manager Daniel Rubenstein released an official statement about the ordeal.
“Sean appreciates the due diligence of the NSAC and USADA to work to get his name cleared for the March 7th UFC 248 fight in Las Vegas, NV,” Rubenstein wrote.
“He looks forward to making his UFC return on an enormous fight card in the fight capital of the world and showing his fans how much he has improved in the last two years away from fighting.”
Going forward, O’Malley will be subject to up to three random drug tests per month up until March 2020.
Longstanding Issues
O’Malley has long standing issues with drug testing, having been pulled from a number of fights in the past two years.
The Arizona fighter was initially pulled from UFC 229 in 2018 for a potential violation.
A fight with Marlon Vera at UFC 239 was then booked for July 2019.
But O’Malley was withdrawn once more following another flagged drug test.
His next fight was originally scheduled for February 8 at UFC 247, but was pushed back amidst the recent investigations.
O’Malley now looks to get his career back on track, having been considered a hot prospect when he first arrived at the UFC.
(Featured image source: Instagram/ Sean O’Malley)