USADA issues first PFL suspension: Gokhan Saricam gets one year for drug test violation

For the first time since the two organizations have partnered, USADA has sanctioned a PFL fighter.

Thursday, USADA announced heavyweight Gokhan Saricam has been suspended one year after he failed multiple competition drug tests on April 29 and May 12.

Saricam, 33, was flagged for clomiphene, a hormone modulator that is prohibited by USADA at all times.

Since Saricam was not notified of his drug test failure until after the second test, the two violations are only counted as one. Saricam will be eligible to return April 29, 2025 – one year retroactive from the first failure.

A seven-fight Bellator veteran, Saricam was expected to make his PFL debut in a regular season fight June 13 vs. Danilo Marques, but withdrew from the fight. It’s unclear if the drug test failure is responsible for his withdrawal.

Saricam has yet to comment publicly on the matter.

PFL and USADA partnered exactly one year to the date of the Saricam announcement after the Nevada Athletic Commission (NAC) detected a slew of drug test failures across multiple divisions.