Jake Collier accepts 10-month suspension from USADA

UFC light heavyweight Jake Collier has accepted a 10-month suspension from the United States Anti-Doping Agency after testing positive for a prohibited substance in December of last year.

The USADA announced the news Tuesday. Per a release, Collier declared that he had used a product containing Higenamine, described as “a general stimulant” that is prohibited at all times. An out-of-competition urine sample collected from Collier on Dec. 27, 2018 confirmed the provided information.

Collier was considered eligible to receive a reduction from the standard one-year suspension due to his cooperation with the USADA “throughout the results management process and forthright declaration of the supplement on his doping control form.” He will be eligible to compete again on Oct. 27, 2019.

The 30-year-old light heavyweight is coming off of a win over Marcel Fortuna back at UFC Norfolk in November 2017. Collier’s lone booking of 2018 fell through when an injury forced him to withdraw from a Feb. 24 meeting with Martin Prachnio. He is 11-4 with three wins and three losses in the UFC.

Shortly after the news was announced, Collier issued a statement via social media to explain the situation:

To my fans and supporters, I just wanted to touch base with you after the news has been announced of my sanction.

First of all, I would NEVER purposely put any illegal substance in my body to gain a competitive edge. I’d rather lose than cheat. Returning from a surgery after an injury in my last fight I went out to the local supplement store and purchased a pre-workout that was recommended by their staff that I have worked with previously. Unfortunately, there was a substance in the product that was listed on the label and on the USADA’s prohibited list that we were unaware of. For that simple mistake, I have accepted a 10-month suspension.

During this process my wife and I have already taken action in learning the proper system to research product names and ingredients. This has been quite a learning lesson and I take full responsibility for my mistake and apologize.

Thank you to my team, my management, Empire Sports, Donna Marcolini and Jeff Novitzky with the UFC for their continued support. Can’t wait to get back to work in the Octagon.