Yoel Romero Awarded $27 Million for Tainted Supplement

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Courtesy of BJPenn.com by way of Ariel Helwani:

“Yoel Romero, as I reported a few weeks ago, was suing Gold Star Performance Products for that failed drug test that he had several years ago,” Helwani said. “It ended up coming out as a contaminated supplement. I was told by his manager, Abraham Kawa that in New Jersey earlier today they won their case against Gold Star Performance Products and this is what he wrote to me, ‘$27.45M is the total Yoel was awarded. $3M for lost wages, $3M for reputable harm, $3M for emotional damage. Multiply that times three for the state of New Jersey Consumer Fraud Act.’

Could this be the beginning of a big wave of lawsuits going after supplement companies?

I have always stated that I believe these outcries of “tainted supplements” are complete B.S. The court decision to award Yoel $27 million is starting to change my opinion. For those who do not know what I mean by “tainted supplement,” it is something that is brought up frequently when an MMA fighter tests positive for performance enhancing drugs. Many athletes have claimed that the supplement they were taking included banned ingredients that do not make it to the label. These ingredients cause the fighter to fail for performance enhancing drugs.

I have always stated that this is not the case and a fighter has always been trying to just cover for getting caught. With the results of this court ruling, it is stating that the fighter did in fact only take an illegal substance because he was unaware it was in his supplement.

This is a huge victory for Yoel and could be the start of a massive movement in litigation for fighters against supplement companies.

My thought has always been, why doesn’t the UFC provide supplements directly to the fighters? Why can’t the UFC provide a branded list of supplements that they stand by? This would resolve a lot of these “tainted supplements” conversation. Or, if a company wanted to come up with a genius marketing plan, they could state that they are willing to stand by their products and risk a large sum of money should a fighter fail for their supplement.

The supplement should be “UFC approved” and give athletes the comfort of knowing that they are not putting illegal substances in their body. What are your thoughts about the issue?

Stan is the Chief of Debauchery for SoBros Network. A native of the Northeast, he is a diehard fan of the New York Yankees, but no, he does not wear a big gold chain and backwards hat. Nor does he drink Heinekens. Follow on Twitter: @sobrostan.

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