A number of Power Slap athletes have been temporarily suspended by the Nevada Athletic Commission pending a full disciplinary hearing after testing positive for a wide variety of banned substances.
A full list of the complaints were laid out by Nevada Deputy Attorney General Joel Bekker with the commission approving all suspensions extended pending resolution on a later date.
Here’s a full breakdown of the Power Slap athletes suspended and the banned substances discovered through drug testing:
T.J. Thomas, who competed in a slap fighting bout on March 9, suspended after testing positive for clomiphene, a hormone and metabolic modulator
Jay Rivera, who competed in a slap fighting bout on March 11, suspended after testing positive for GW-1516, sulfone and sulfoxide, hormone and metabolic modulators
Chris Thomas, who competed in a slap fighting bout on March 11, suspended after testing positive for Buprenorphine, a narcotic and its metabolite norbuprenorphine. Buprenorphine is a medication used to treat opioid use disorder.
Andrew Provost, who competed in a slap fighting bout on March 11, suspended after testing positive for Buprenorphine, a narcotic and it’s metabolite norbuprenorphine
Isaih Quinones, who competed in a slap fighting bout on March 11, suspended after testing positive for Norandrosterone, drostanolone, tamoxifen and boldenone, which are anabolic steroids. His “A” sample was tested and showed “exogenous origin of testosterone.”
Frank Holland, who competed in a slap fighting bout on March 11, suspended after testing positive for phentermine, a stimulant that can be prescribed for weight loss.
After all of the names and banned substances were listed, the commission approved the temporary suspensions extended until a full disciplinary hearing is held.
Nevada Athletic Commission chairman Anthony Marnell then reacted to the long list of suspensions related to slap fighting bouts.
“Is there like a big bowl of performance-enhancing drugs down there somewhere that I don’t know about?” Marnell quipped. “I haven’t seen this in quite a while. I didn’t know you needed to use steroids to slap but I guess we’re going to find out.”
The Nevada Athletic Commission voted unanimously to approve the regulation of slap fighting in 2022 with Power Slap serving as the main promotion with events typically held at the UFC APEX in Las Vegas.
Ex-Nevada Commission chairman Stephen Cloobeck, who resigned from the commission after Governor Joe Lombardo was elected, later expressed regrets for his vote to approve slap fighting in the state.
“I made a mistake,” Cloobeck said about his vote in a statement sent to the Associated Press. “I’m not happy about it.”
