One-Time UFC Competitor Bharat Khandare Suspended 2 Years for Positive Steroid Test

SONG YADONG!!

Only 19 - NINETEEN - and just put on a SHOW!! #UFCShanghai https://t.co/v7Pyjv0z20 pic.twitter.com/v6gcXsWHVM

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Bharat Khandare has accepted a two-year suspension from USADA after testing positive for multiple banned substances in an out-of-competition sample collected on July 23, 2018.

Khandare, who suffered a first-round submission loss to Yadong Song in his lone Octagon appearance at UFC Fight Night 122 in November 2017, tested positive for both a steroid and an estrogen blocker. His suspension is retroactive to Nov. 2, 2018, the date of his USADA provisional suspension.

The statement from USADA is as follows:

USADA announced today that Bharat Vijay Khandare, of Maharashtra, India, has accepted a two-year sanction for a violation of the UFC® Anti-Doping Policy after testing positive for prohibited substances.

Khandare, 31, tested positive for exogenous boldenone and its metabolites, as well as a metabolite of tamoxifen, following an out-of-competition test conducted on July 23, 2018. Boldenone is a non-Specified Substance in the class of Anabolic Agents and tamoxifen is a Specified Substance in the class of Hormone and Metabolic Modulators. Both substances are prohibited at all times under the UFC Anti-Doping Policy, which has adopted the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) Prohibited List.

“The goal of the UFC Anti-Doping Program is to deter the use of performance-enhancing drugs and this necessarily means we will identify and hold accountable those who use performance-enhancing substances to gain an advantage in the Octagon,” said USADA CEO Travis T. Tygart. “As the Program continues to grow and innovate, we will do our best to continue to protect clean athletes so that athletes can win in the Octagon without cheating and endangering their health and safety and that of their competitors.”

Khandares’s two-year period of ineligibility began on November 2, 2018, the date on which he was provisionally suspended from competition.

The 29-year-old Khandare is a native of Bhagur, Maharashtra, India, and owns a 5-3 professional record. All five of his triumphs came under the Super Fight League banner.