At the post-fight press conference for UFC Vegas 15, Dana White seemed very cryptic when answering a question regarding Rodriguez’s return.
White even turned to his people asking “didn’t we release that publicly?”
The media and fans alike we’re very confused about this, but now we have an answer. It turns out Rodriguez had failed to update his Whereabouts information and was unavailable for testing at locations provided in his Whereabouts Filings on three occasions. Due to the three failures in a 12-month period, this constitutes a policy violation under the UFC Anti-Doping Policy. USADA announced it at a press release on Thursday.
As Rodriguez’s last failure occurred in September, this means that he won’t be able to return to the octagon until March.
El Pantera last fought at UFC on ESPN 6: Reyes vs Weidman in October 2019. That fight was a rematch with Jeremy Stephens which he won via decision. There first bout ended early due to an accidental eye poke which left Stephens unable to continue. He was scheduled to fight Zabit Magomedsharipov in August but pulled out due to an ankle injury.
