Junior Dos Santos has been removed from the UFC rankings

Though there was no UFC event last weekend, the UFC has updated it’s official rankings. The changes to the rankings, however, are limited to the heavyweight division. The reason for these changes can be attributed to the recent potential anti-doping violation of former champion Junior Dos Santos.

Dos Santos was flagged by the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA), the organization charged with drug-testing in the UFC, and pulled from his planned UFC 215 showdown with red hot contender Francis Ngannou as a result. The former champion has now been removed from the UFC heavyweight rankings as a result.

Since news of his potential USADA violation broke, Dos Santos has maintained his innocence, releasing a lengthy statement on Instagram to that end.

Oi pessoal Eu não estou aqui para dar explicações, logo tudo será esclarecido para todos vocês e sem duvidas que a verdade prevalecerá. Eu estou aqui em respeito a todos vocês. Eu só quero que saibam que essa situação tem sido bastante difícil para mim, meu time e minha família. Eu nunca trapacearia, isso vai contra tudo o que acredito e apoio. Nós estamos investigando isso a fundo e logo descobriremos o que aconteceu, aprenderemos com isso e seguiremos em frente. Mas eu espero que em um futuro próximo, Francis Ngannou e eu possamos nos enfrentar e dar a vocês, a luta que estavam esperando ver. Por agora, muito obrigado por todo seu apoio, isso significa muito para mim e é por isso que estou aqui. Boa noite.

A post shared by Junior Cigano Dos Santos (@junior_cigano) on Aug 19, 2017 at 11:20pm PDT

“I’m not here to give an explanation,” Dos Santos said in his post (h / t MMAJunkie.com ). “Soon, everything will be clear to all of you and no doubt – truth will prevail. I’m here in respect of all of you guys. I just want to say that this situation is very tough for me, my team and my family. And I would never cheat. It goes against everything I stand for. I play a fair game. We will get to the bottom of this, figure out what happened, learn from it and move on. And I hope in the near future, Francis Ngannou and I can face each other and give you guys the show you were expecting. For now, thank you very much for your support. It means a lot to me, and that’s why I’m here.”

Whatever the case, Junior Dos Santos will be given due process before any punishment is dished out. Given the big news of last night, we’re likely to see some more big shifts in the UFC rankings soon – even without a UFC card this weekend.

This article first appeared on BJPenn.com on 8/23/2017.