During Tuesday’s regularly scheduled meeting, the Nevada State Athletic Commission (NSAC) decided to prolong the temporary suspensions of two UFC fighters.

In the lightweight battle that was supposed to take place at UFC Vegas 70 between Darrius Flowers and Erick Gonzalez, Flowers had to pull out of the fight in the middle of February. According to reports at the time, Flowers was not on the card for reasons that are currently unknown.

 

During the meeting of the NSAC on Tuesday, Deputy Attorney General Joel Becker stated that Flowers “submitted to a urinalysis, the results of which reflected the presence of ostarine, a quote, other anabolic agents, banned under the latest WADA list. The testing of respondent’s B sample confirmed the results… Executive director (Jeffrey) Mullen temporarily suspended respondent’s licence on February 27th, 2023, and it’s now being requested that this suspension be continued pending resolution of the formal disciplinary action.”

On the card for UFC Vegas 70, Flowers was scheduled to make his first appearance in the UFC. As part of a Dana White Contender Series event in August 2022, he defeated Amiran Gogoladze via first-round technical knockout to earn a contract with the UFC.

Kyler Phillips was the other fighter whose NSAC suspension was lengthened after an appeal was submitted.

On the fight card for UC Vegas 71, which took place in March, Phillips was scheduled to take on Raphael Assuncao. Back in February, Phillips was removed from the card for reasons that were not disclosed, and Davey Grant took his place.

 

According to Becker: “respondent submitted to a urinalysis, the result of which reflected the presence of ostarine, again, a quote, other anabolic agent under the latest WADA list. Testing of respondent’s B sample again confirmed the results. Based on these results. executive director Mullen temporarily suspended respondent’s licence on March 1st, 2023, and is now being requested that this suspension be continued pending resolution of the form of disciplinary action.”

 

Phillips’s most recent bout took place in February 2022 at UFC 271, when he won by submission over Marcel Rojo in the third round. Phillips has been with the UFC since February 2020.

Both fighters’ suspensions were extended after a vote by the commission, which also notified Flowers and Phillips of the disciplinary complaints that were lodged against them. Throughout the next couple of months, the NSAC will most likely look at making a final judgement on both of the pending cases.

At this point, neither Phillips nor Flowers have provided an explanation or made a public statement regarding their suspensions.