Phillips took Valium

But John didn't realise that Valium contains one of our banned substances.

"It's such a shame because he was doing everything right up to that point but he can have no complaints. The rules are clear and John spars with Enzo Maccarinelli so he had a wealth of professional advice at hand. Ignorance is simply not a good enough excuse so the four-month ban had to be put in place.

"Phillips is gutted about the whole thing and so are we. We have an appeals process but John has decided to take his punishment on the chin. I'm sure he will come back stronger."

Unlicensed

Some critics have questioned whether the ban is severe enough to be a proper deterrent.

British sprinter Dwain Chambers was given a two-year ban from all competitions and a lifetime suspension from the Olympic games after taking anabolic steroid THG.

And Manchester United and England defender defender Rio Ferdinand was handed an eight-month suspension from professional football and fined £50,000 for MISSING a drugs test.

But Geer insisted: "The length of suspension we impose for a failed drug test is totally dependent of the severity of the offence and we believe a four-month ban is fair on this occasion. We didn't want to make an example of the guy because he clearly did not intend to cheat but his mistake must still be punished.

"If Phillips had been found guilty of using performance-enhancing drugs, he would have been banned for two years - at least."

Geer insisted the MMA's approach to drug-testing was much more rigorous than that of rival organisation UFC.

Eradicated

In July 2007, UFC lightweight champion Sean Sherk was banned for just six months after using anabolic steroids. He was then given the chance regain the title that was stripped from him against BJ Penn in his FIRST comeback fight.

Geer rapped: "Sean Sherk should be eradicated from the sport altogether. He knowingly took performance enhancers to intentionally cheat his way to the top. The guy sets a terrible example to the sport and to allow him to walk back in sets a worse one. It's not how we would have handled the situation.

"We're trying to protect the sport. If you look what's happening at the top level of drug abuse, the WWE, you see that those guys are literally killing themselves with steroids.

"With drugs being so cheap and readily available, we're committed to doing whatever it takes to prevent our guys giving in to temptation and sticking needles in their a***s.

"It's costly but testing is necessary to keep everything safe and fair whilst staying competitive."

Geer is adamant that Phillips' setback will be MMA's gain.

He added: "Hopefully this will be a wake-up call to everyone in the sport about their responsibilities. What we're doing should reassure people that our tolerance of drugs is no different to any other professional sport.

"I'm confident that everything we've done will be received well but - as a whole - I believe that abuse of performance-enhancing substances in the UK is very, very limited."

Picture by Lee Whitehead.