Brandon Rios reportedly fails post-fight drug test
Brandon Rios said he wanted to get some rest after his fight against Manny Pacquiao at the Cotai Arena in Macau. Now it looks like he will get to rest longer than what he planned as a suspension looms after he reportedly failed the post-fight drug test.
Rios tested positive for the banned substance methylexanamine – a stimulant that is commonly known as dimenthylamylamine or DMAA. It’s not a performance-enhancing drug meaning he did not have malicious intent of putting Pacquiao’s life in peril. DMAA is a something present in some dietary supplements. It is a banned substance as it has been linked to a handful of deaths.
“There was a little something in his urine after the fight,’’ Arum said in an interview with Ring Magazine’s Tim Smith. “It was something they (VADA) reported to the Chinese commission after the fight. He passed all the tests before that. It wasn’t a steroid. It was probably something he took to make weight.’’
“This is the first I’m hearing about it,’’ said Robert Garcia, Rios’s trainer, when Smith got a hold of him. “I haven’t heard that.’’ Prior the Pacquiao-Rios fight, Garcia clarified that his job is to train Rios. He explained that how he gets inside the weight limit is something Alex Ariza is in charge of.
Knowing that fingers will be pointed at him, Ariza had the most to say about the situation.
“The containers that are used to retrieve the urine samples weren't available after the fight. So they had Brandon pee into a (drinking) glass,’’ Ariza said. “Robert just brought that to my attention. So we will have to see whether something happened as they transferred it to another glass, or whether it was the drinking glass, or there could be a lot of contaminants like that."
Ariza also clarified that it was not a performance-enhancing drug and explained that the fighter could have ingested it unknowingly.
"It's not a performance-enhancing drug. It's not any of those illegal things,’’ Ariza continued. “It's something that you can buy over the counter in China. Maybe he ate something. It could have been any of those things. It's a dietary supplement. ... I don't really know."
