Priscila Cachoeira explains why she failed drug test for diuretic, will miss UFC Sao Paulo event

Ariane Lipski needs another opponent for UFC Sao Paulo after Priscila Cachoeira was forced off the Nov. 16 card in Brazil.

Cachoeira told MMA Fighting a failed drug test was the reason for her removal. She said she tested positive for a diuretic. Tatame was the first to report the news.

Cachoeira said she was visiting her mother on Oct. 10 when she started feeling ill with high blood pressure and blurred vision. Her mother, who works as a nurse in Rio de Janeiro, gave her medication, and she felt better a few minutes later.

The problem, Cachoeira said, is that the medication her mother administered was hydrocholorothiazide, which is listed as a banned substance by the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA). Hydrocholorothiazide is a diuretic that can also be used as a masking agent.

Cachoeira says she was randomly drug tested by USADA on Oct. 12, two days after visiting her mother in Bangu, and was informed on Tuesday that the test came back positive for the substance.

“It was an accident,” Cachoeira told MMA Fighting on Wednesday. “My mother, who also has high blood pressure, saw me ill, so she gave me the medicine she usually takes. I had no idea what she was giving me. I wasn’t even thinking about USADA, I just wanted to get better. She has no idea what USADA does.

“When USADA told me the date of the test, I started thinking how that was possible, and then I remembered. I called my mom asking which medicine she gave me, and she said hydrocholorothiazide, the diuretic she uses. She started crying, feeling guilty about it, but I said it’s not her fault, that I’m an athlete and I’m the one that should worry about it.”

“Pedrita” hopes that USADA understands the circumstances and gives her a reduced suspension — or no punishment at all.

“I hope USADA understands the desperation of a mother seeing her daughter ill,” Cachoeira said. “I wasn’t even thinking straight when that happened.”

Lipski told MMA Fighting she’s hoping that the UFC finds another flyweight to face her on 10 days’ notice.