{"id":356358,"date":"2025-12-18T16:01:08","date_gmt":"2025-12-18T16:01:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/356358\/"},"modified":"2025-12-18T16:01:08","modified_gmt":"2025-12-18T16:01:08","slug":"khaybulaev-25-pfl-featherweight-champion-suspended-one-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/356358\/","title":{"rendered":"Khaybulaev, ’25 PFL featherweight champion, suspended one year"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

Andreas HaleDec 19, 2025, 02:27 AM<\/p>\n

Close<\/a>Andreas Hale is a combat sports reporter at ESPN. Andreas covers MMA, boxing and pro wrestling. In Andreas’ free time, he plays video games, obsesses over music and is a White Sox and 49ers fan. He is also a host for Sirius XM’s Fight Nation. Before joining ESPN, Andreas was a senior writer at DAZN and Sporting News. He started his career as a music journalist for outlets including HipHopDX, The Grammys and Jay-Z’s Life+Times. He is also an NAACP Image Award-nominated filmmaker as a producer for the animated short film “Bridges” in 2024.<\/p>\n

2025 PFL featherweight champion Movlid Khaybulaev<\/a> has tested positive for a banned substance and will be suspended for one year, the PFL announced on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

Khaybulaev, who also won the tournament in 2021, defeated Jesus Pinedo<\/a> by fifth-round submission in the finals<\/a> of the tournament on Aug. 1. However, his in-competition sample that he submitted came back positive for the banned substance recombinant erythropoietin the same day he defeated Pinedo at Jim Whelan Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City, New Jersey.<\/p>\n

The suspension will be retroactive to his positive test date.<\/p>\n

The PFL and USADA ended their antidoping relationship recently, but the test took place in the final days of their partnership. PFL now works with the Mohegan Sun Tribe Department of Athletic Regulation to oversee its drug testing program.<\/p>\n

“Pursuant to PFL rules and regulations, Khaybulaev has been disqualified from the 2025 PFL World Tournament,” a statement from the PFL read<\/a>. “As a result of the disqualification under PFL rules, Khaybulaev forfeits the distinction of 2025 PFL featherweight tournament champion, the championship belt and all associated bonus awards.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Andreas HaleDec 19, 2025, 02:27 AM CloseAndreas Hale is a combat sports reporter at ESPN. Andreas covers MMA,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":356359,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[570],"tags":[64,63,786,785,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-356358","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mma","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-fighting","11":"tag-mma","12":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/356358","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=356358"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/356358\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/356359"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=356358"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=356358"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=356358"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}