It was a hard night in the office for Jasmine Jasudavicius, who had to dig deep and fight carefully to earn a win at UFC Winnipeg over Karine Silva.
At the end of their bout, the judges scored the fight 29-28 across the board for the Canadian fighter … but if video from between rounds shows what we think it shows, that unanimous decision win could possibly be overturned by the Manitoba Combative Sports Commission.
That video seems to show that Jasudavicius competed with a Zyn nicotine pouch in her mouth — something that is almost definitely illegal according to the Unified Rules of MMA. While there’s no specific regulation against lippin’ a Z while fighting, there are blanket rules that state you’re not allowed to have anything other than water during a bout. Given that Zyns could be considered performance enhancing, what happens now?
There’s plenty of UFC fighters out there who are taking Zyns. Alex Pereira is probably the most famous one, and his social media shows how he’s constantly taking them right up until he’s about to walk out to the cage. Taking Zyns or eating a pound of gummy bears is totally legal in the dressing room. In the cage? Not so much.
Jasudavicius wouldn’t be the first UFC fighter caught with something illegal in their mouth during a fight. Way back in the day, former lightweight champion Benson Henderson used to fight with a toothpick in his mouth, a strange habit that he developed in training. When camera footage from a UFC event in Seattle came out revealing Henderson had fought with the toothpick, the Washington commission shrugged it off.
“We will not be investigating,” their official statement read. “We do not have any rules that address a toothpick.”
Will Manitoba be as lenient on Jasudavicius, or is there a more innocent explanation to this video? We’ll have to wait and see.
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