UFC Flyweight Liliya Shakirova Suspended 2 Years for Anti-Doping Violation

Liliya Shakirova Accepts Sanction for Violation of UFC Anti-Doping Policy https://t.co/df2xPjTUUj

— USADA (@usantidoping) August 30, 2021

One-time UFC competitor Liliya Shakirova has accepted a two-year suspension for a violation of the promotion’s anti-doping policy, USADA announced Monday.

Shakirova tested positive for meldonium in an out-of-competition sample collected on Dec. 5 in her home country of Uzbekistan. Meldonium is used to treat heart conditions, among other issues, but in terms of performance enhancing benefits, it is believed to enhance the body’s capacity to carry oxygen. It is listed in the category of hormone and metabolic modulators on the UFC banned substance list.

Shakirova would have avoid a violation had she declared her use of Meldonium prior to entering the USADA drug-testing pool, but she did not make such an admission. As a result, her two-year sanction is retroactive to Dec. 5, 2020.

The 29-year-old made her Octagon debut at UFC 254, where she suffered a second-round submission loss to current flyweight No. 1 contender Lauren Murphy this past October. Shakirova owns an 8-2 professional mark that includes appearances with Gorilla Fighting Championships and Fight Nights Global.

The USADA statement regarding Shakirova is as follows:

USADA announced today that Liliya Shakirova, of Tashkent, Uzbekistan, has accepted a two-year sanction for a violation of the UFC® Anti-Doping Policy.

Shakirova, 29, tested positive for meldonium as the result of a sample collected out of competition on December 5, 2020 in her home country of Uzbekistan. Meldonium is a non-Specified Substance in the category of Hormone and Metabolic Modulators and it is prohibited at all times under the UFC Anti-Doping Policy and the UFC Prohibited List.

Upon being added to the UFC Anti-Doping Program, athletes are required to declare prohibited substances they have used in the previous 12 months. An athlete who makes such declaration will not be deemed to have committed a violation but, depending on the substance, may be required to refrain from competition for a period of at least six months and provide at least two negative samples. Shakirova did not declare the use of meldonium on her onboarding declaration forms.

Shakirova’s two-year period of ineligibility began on December 5, 2020, the date her positive sample was collected.