Yoel Romero Says He Heard That Paulo Costa Had a USADA Violation, Clarifies He Isn’t Certain About Story

Yoel Romero raised eyebrows when he says that his fight with Paulo Costa was cancelled due to a USADA violation on Costa’s part, which he’s now walking back. Romero made the comments on Ariel Helwani’s MMA Show (per MMAjunkie), telling the host that his previously-agreed fight with Costa at UFC on ESPN 3 was cancelled due to the failed test.

“What I hear is Paulo Costa, he had a positive test for USADA,” Romero said. “That’s what happened. That’s what I heard. The UFC called my manager and said Paulo Costa is out because he is positive and they said, ”Jacare’ Souza’ (as an opponent)?’ I said OK.”

Afterward, Helwani took to Twitter to say that Romero had reached out and wanted to make sure people knew that he wasn’t making an accusation:

Re: the Paulo Costa story, Yoel Romero called me immediately after the show to clarify that he had only heard that Paulo Costa failed a USADA drug test but he is not sure if that is accurate at this time. He said he would never want to accuse anyone before the facts come out.

— Ariel Helwani (@arielhelwani) March 11, 2019

I’ve reached out to Costa’s team, USADA, UFC to get an official word on if this is accurate, but no word back yet.

— Ariel Helwani (@arielhelwani) March 11, 2019

Costa has denied the story while speaking to Tatame, saying, “I’m the Brazilian UFC fighter who gets tested the most by USADA – I never failed (a doping test) and I didn’t this time. I don’t need doping to get all the good results I’ve been getting and to be regarded as the new Brazilian star in the sport, like I am. I don’t need these things.”

He added, “I’d rather keep this quiet, wait for the UFC to say what happened, and then everyone will know better, including me.”