The vice president of the world’s strongest league, Jeff Nowitzki, presented the Russian with a personalized jacket, saying that Ankalaev became the first fighter to join the club of the cleanest athletes after the organization stopped cooperating with USADA.
“I’ve always been in favor of clean sports, so it’s well-deserved,” the Russian welterweight said. “I’m happy to be among the cleanest athletes, and I’ve gone through a lot to do this. This is very important to me and I’m happy to be here.”
It should be noted that Daniel Cormier, Israel Adesanya, Charles Oliveira, Dominick Cruz, Robert Whittaker, Max Holloway, Francis Ngannou, Rob Font, Donald Cerrone, Amanda Nunes, Holly Holm, Robbie Lawler, Jose Aldo and Rafael Dos Anjos had previously passed the fifty consecutive clean doping tests mark.
As a reminder, Magomed Ankalaev will headline this weekend’s UFC Fight Night 234 event in Las Vegas, and if he pulls off a convincing win over Brazilian Johnnie Walker, could become the next challenger for the UFC bantamweight championship belt.