UFC welterweight Michel Prazeres retires after receiving four-year USADA suspension

Michel Prazeres’ rocky tenure with Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) has come to an unceremonious end. The Brazilian welterweight was recently handed a four-year suspension from United States Anti Doping Agency (USADA) after his second violation in two years.

“Prazeres received his first violation after testing positive for boldenone and served a two-year period of ineligibility beginning on March 9, 2019,” USADA officials wrote (via MMA Fighting).

The samples were collected after his loss to Shavkat Rakhmonov this past June, his second defeat in a row.

“Prazeres, 40, tested positive for clomiphene and its metabolites (desethyl-clomiphene, clomiphene M1, and clomiphene M2), oxandrolone metabolites, and the exogenous administration of testosterone and/or its precursors as the result of urine samples collected out-of-competition on August 27, 2021, September 16, 2021, October 15, 2021, and November 2, 2021.”

As a result, Prazeres wouldn’t be able to return to active competition until Aug. 2025. With no sanctioned fighting in his future, the report states “Tractor” decided to call it a career, ending his nine-year run with UFC.

To say Prazeres had a tumultuous run with the promotion during that span would be an understatement. Though he did have an eight-fight win streak inside the Octagon at one point, which includes wins over Gilbert Burns and Josh Burkman, his stint was riddled with one mishap after another.

Aside from failing now two USADA-administered drug tests — the first was in 2019 for which he served a two-year suspension -- he also missed weight on three separate occasions. All in all, Prazeres ends his career with a rather impressive 26-4 mark, 10-4 inside the Octagon.