Ever wondered what happened to Cody McKenzie? Well Tim Bissell actually covered that a couple of years ago, but we have an update to the former UFC fighter’s wacky and unorthodox MMA career.
McKenzie has been suspended by the Nevada Atheltic Commission for four years after an apparent attempt to cheat the drug-testing system through the use of fake urine prior to a scheduled Tuff-N-Uff fight in Las Vegas back in September.
MMA Fighting has the details on McKenzie’s ban:
On Sept. 14, McKenzie was asked to submit a sample and he refused, saying he would return to his room and provide one later. When he did submit a sample, officials determined that it was abnormal and McKenzie confessed that it came from a “bottled urine substitute”. He allegedly wanted to avoid the test due to recently smoking marijuana.
Because no proper sample was collected, the NAC committee could not rule out that McKenzie was attempting to hide performance-enhancing drugs and not just a drug of abuse. A pair of motions were passed to determine that McKenzie should receive a two-year suspension from competition for “aggravating circumstances” and an additional two years for avoiding the drug test altogether and showing a “disregard for protocol.”
The latter decision was motivated by McKenzie not attending Wednesday’s hearing and what was determined to be a lack of communication and contrition on his part since the incident occurred. He will also pay $944.84 in attorney reimbursement fees.
The 30-year-old McKenzie was also suspended by the Italian Grappling MMA Federation for refusing to provide a urine sample for his most recent fight, a TKO loss to Stefano Paterno in October 2017.
McKenzie (16-11) fought on season 12 of The Ultimate Fighter, earning a UFC contract in 2010. Known for his “McKenzietine” chokes, Cody went 2-4 in the UFC before his release, providing us a memorable farewell moment in 2013 when he seriously fought Sam Stout in basketball shorts, with Herb Dean having to rip off the sales tag mid-fight. In more recent times, McKenzie was disqualified from a WSOF bout vs. Andrew McInnes after headbutting his opponent. He also tapped to strikes against Joe Riggs in 2016. Now with this urine sample incident, which puts him right up there with Thiago Silva in the “MMA Fake Urine Hall of Fame,” McKenzie won’t have his suspension lifted until 2022.