Report: Kazuhiro Nakamura Will Appeal UFC 76 Drug Suspension

Posted by MMA Junkie on September 28, 2007 at 9:00 am ET


The management team for Kazuhiro Nakamura, a longtime PRIDE Fighting Championships fighter who failed a UFC 76 drug test due to marijuana, plans to fight the charge on the grounds that California State Athletic Commission officials botched the drug test — and other medical tests.
J-ROCK, Nakamura’s management team, issued a press release about its decision to appeal the test. The release was translated by Zack Arnold at FightOpinion.com, an expert on the Japanese fight scene.
J-ROCK claims Nakamura never used marijuana.

On Wednesday, the CSAC announced that Nakamura, who suffered a unanimous-decision loss to Ryoto Machida, has tested positive for marijuana and had been fined $500 and suspended three months. He was the only one of the 18 fighters on the Sept. 22 card to test positive for recreational drugs; results from the tests for performance enhancers and diuretics are still pending.

According to Arnold, the crux of J-ROCK argument is that a U.S. CT scan showed Nakamura was experiencing some bleeding in his brain — something a subsequent scan in Japan didn’t show.

As Arnold explained: “Therefore, J-ROCK’s public stance is that there were mistakes with other medical tests and that there must have been a mistake with the CSAC drug test. They do not accept the current findings from the initial CSAC drug test.“

There’s no word on when the appeal may be heard.

yet again!