gleison tibau_ripped
i’m a lightweight like the Hulk is a lightweight compared to Godzilla / screenshot youtube

Gleison Tibau has been in the UFC nearly a decade now. Next November will be 10 years the 32-year-old American Top Team product has been fighting the top lightweights inside the Octagon. His first fight in the UFC was at welterweight, a TKO loss to Nick Diaz, then he moved down to lightweight where he has remained a prototypical gatekeeper. You don’t really ever see him becoming champion, but if you can get past Tibau, you’re in the upper echelon of the 155-pound division.

How is Tibau going to continue to make 155-pounds with the new I.V. ban? The guy is enormous. And now if this latest report that a “potential” violation has resulted from an out-of-competition test turns out to be legit, then one could hypothesize that Tibau has been getting a little extra help making the lightweight limit. We can’t assume anything at this point, but it should be noted he has failed to make weight a couple times in the past. Tibau holds a 17-9 record inside the Octagon.

The UFC released the following statement regarding a “potential” failed drug test:

The U.S. Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) has notified both Gleison Tibau and UFC that he has been provisionally suspended due to a potential Anti-Doping Policy violation stemming from an out-of-competition test.

USADA, the independent administrator of the UFC Anti-Doping Policy, will handle the results management and appropriate adjudication of this case involving Gleison Tibau. Additional information will be provided at the appropriate time in the process.

How we are getting “potential” failed drug tests now is anyone’s guess, but there you have it. Maybe for legal reasons they’re saying “potential”, but it seems it’s either positive or negative, or why even release the information at this time?

Tibau is coming off a controversial submission win over Abel Trujillo in November in which both fighters agreed that Trujillo never tapped, but the referee thought he did. That’s MMA for ya. And so is this.

Performance enhancing supplements are as ingrained with MMA as sweat. And as this paradigm shift occurs between what used to be okay and what is now viewed as cheating, there are going to be casualties. This is a leftover wave of old school use-every-advantage-you-can mentality. Brain trauma and concussions are a good argument against the use of PEDs in a civilized society which is what we claim to be.

But patterns in camps become evident over time. It’s not hard to see which camps have a reputation for popping hot. Whatever your views on PEDs, we know the UFC has the most stringent testing in MMA. What goes on in all the other promotions around the globe ranges anywhere from the Wild West to pissing in a cup. Most of those fighters train with UFC fighters. You see the dilemma.

If you’d like to see USADA’s prohibited substances list visit www.usada.org.

Check out this video of Tibau weighing in over 180-pounds on fight night.

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