UFC bantamweight Francisco Rivera suspended four years by USADA

Rivera, a veteran UFC bantamweight, has been issued a four-year suspension by an independent arbitrator stemming from his July 2016 positive drug test for the banned substance clenbuterol, USADA has announced. That suspension is retroactive to Aug. 2016, the date on which Rivera was first provisionally suspended by USADA.

The verdict was made official Friday following a Dec. 2017 evidentiary hearing.

Rivera is among several UFC athletes who tested positive for clenbuterol in recent years, having done so in a out-of-competition urine sample provided on July 23, 2016. Similar to the cases of Augusto Montano and Li Jingliang, Rivera said he believed the positive test was the result of tainted…