Chris Leben Tests Positive for Steroids, Suspended Nine Months

"The Crippler" has tested positive for the banned substance and anabolic agent stanozolol. Leben will be suspended nine months from fighting and have to forfeit one-third of his UFC 89 purse according to UFC.com.

“I’ve really done everything I can to turn my life around, and this is a huge setback for me, but it is something I will have to deal with. During my time off from fighting, I want to speak to kids about the dangers of using performance enhancing agents and let them know it just doesn’t get you ahead in life. Of course this is a hard hit for me monetarily, but more so this is embarrassing for me and for all of my fans. I apologize to the UFC and everyone who supported me in my fight in England. I hope to work through this and get back to fighting soon.”

Obviously some terrible news for everyone involved, but hey if you cheat you should pay the price. Anytime this happens, especially in the premier MMA organization on the planet, its a black mark on the sport.

EliteXC Heavyweight Champion Antonio Silva Tests Positive for Steroids

Juicing Alert, www.f4wonline.com has the scoop.

Antonio Silva Jr., the current EliteXC Heavyweight Champion, tested positive for Boldenone. He has been suspended for one year and fined $2,500.

Here's what wikipedia has to say about this particular steroid.

Boldenone (1,4-androstadiene-3-one-17β-ol, available as the undecylenate ester), also known under the trade names Equipoise, Ganabol, Equigan and Ultragan, is an anabolic steroid developed for veterinary use, mostly for treatment of horses. It is not indicated for use in humans in the US and is only available through veterinary clinics.

Apparently this is the most popular steroid among MMA fighters. From Wikipedia.

Stephan Bonnar and Josh Barnett, mixed martial arts (MMA) fighters from the UFC and PRIDE Fighting Championships, have also tested positive for the banned substance.[1] After the World Extreme Cagefighting show on January 20, 2006 Muay Thai turned MMA fighter Kit Cope also tested positive for Boldenone.[2]Following the Strikeforce card on June 22, 2007 former PRIDE and UFC fighter Phil Baroni tested positive for Boldenone, as well as Stanozolol.[3] Most recently, at a K-1 WGP event in Las Vegas on August 17, 2007 two fighters, Rickard Nordstrand and Zabit Samedov, both tested positive for Boldenone.[4] Alexandre Franca Nogueira (Pictures) has tested positive for the anabolic steroid Boldenone, the California State Athletic Commission said Monday in a statement, on July 7, 2008.

From the Affliction show Edwin Dewees was busted for Nandrolone.

Sean Sherk Will Not Be Stripped of His Title

****UPDATE, Apparently Sherk is now being stripped! Here's a LINK to the story****
UFC Lighweight Champion Sean Sherk will remain the champion, despite testing positive for steroids. Here's the meat of the article from mmafightline.

UFC president Dana White has gone back and forth on whether he would strip Sherk of his title were he to lose his appeal to the NSAC. First, White told Yahoo!Sports' Kevin Iole that Sherk would keep the title regardless of the outcome of his appeal, then a few days later, White backpedelled on those comments stating during a conference call that Sherk would probably be stripped of his title if he were to lose his appeal.

Read the rest HERE

Sherk has denied the positive test from the beginning and some in the MMA community would question the way CSAC has handled the whole situation. In any case Sherk and B.J. Penn need to get in the cage and fight. Until that happens many fans will still consider the lightweight belt in limbo.