Gleison Tibau (photo via Super Lutas.com.br)

By FCF Staff

Recently the UFC announced that Gleison Tibau has been provisionally suspended for a potential, anti-doping violation, and the lightweight has commented on the developments.

According to a statement from the UFC, the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) has informed the promotion of a potential, anti-doping violation regarding an out-of-competition test for Tibau. The veteran’s PR firm has reportedly sent MMA Fighting.com a statement from Tibau, and here is some of what he had to say in it.

I’m not used to an easy life. Since I was a kid, I have fought for everything I’ve conquered, I have overcome adversities, and I’m really proud of who I am. I face this doping news as another stone that I have to take out of my way as a professional fighter and a correct citizen. As a responsible man that I am, I never believed I ingested something that could fantasize my performances. I make sure I have a healthy life outside the sport, and honest and clean inside the sport. I train hard, I do my best.

However, I can’t turn my back to a notification from USADA, an institution with credibility and a mission of stopping dirty game, doping. I will talk to my medical staff in the next days to find out where we made a mistake, and will do what we can in my trial. I fight professionally for 16 years, nine being  inside the UFC, and was never in this situation. It tastes bad, like a loss inside the cage, but will be a big lesson, as experience to become more alert as an athlete of what can or can’t be done in the sport’s anti-doping policy.

Later in the statement Tibau said he is “deeply sorry” for what’s happened. The aforementioned report says that Tibau allegedly tested positive for recombinant human erythropoietin (EPO).

Tibau is coming off a first round, submission win over Abel Trujillo in November.