Jessica Penne accepts 20-month sanction for second USADA violation

Jessica Penne Esther Lin/MMAFighting.com After asking for the public’s help to fight a second anti-doping violation, UFC strawweight Jessica Penne has accepted a 20-month suspension from the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency.

In a press release, the UFC’s anti-doping partner said it declined to pursue an enhanced penalty for Penne’s second violation because it found she “was not intending to cheat” in a previous case that led to an 18-month suspension.

Penne, 36, was ruled out of her comeback fight at UFC on ESPN 3 when she failed an out-of-competition drug test conducted on April 8, 2019. According to USADA, she came up positive at “trace levels” for a pair of metabolites of the banned steroid…