The long wait continues for Eastbrook native Tim Sylvia as his scheduled three-round heavyweight fight Friday against Andre Arlovski was scratched.

Sylvia, who is coming off a four-month suspension by the Nevada Athletic Commission for taking banned performance-enhancing drugs, was pulled from Friday’s Ultimate Fighting Championship undercard after a Wednesday urinalysis test revealed Sylvia still has miniscule traces of a diuretic used for weight training in his system.

“I think Tim is still going to be very much in the running for the heavyweight title,” said Jack Taylor, UFC director of public relations.

Taylor said it’s hard to say when Sylvia will have another opportunity to fight, given the unpredictable nature of how long it takes the body to rid itself totally of some banned substances.

“It’s got to run it’s course, but we’ll figure it out,” he said.

It has been six months since Sylvia relinquished his UFC heavyweight title, drew a suspension, and was fined $7,500.

Sylvia, who graduated from Ellsworth High School in 1992, was to fight in “UFC 47: It’s On!” Friday night at the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas. Sylvia was going to face Andre Arlovski (7-3) in a heavyweight bout. With him out, Cabbage Correira will fight Arlovski and Wes Sims has been added to take Correira’s place against Mike Kyle.

Sylvia is 18-0 in his professional mixed-martial arts career, but his victory over Gan McGee in a Sept. 26 title defense bout now has an asterisk on it after his postfight test caused him to surrender his belt.

Sylvia insists – and published reports of the results indicate – that the possible small trace amounts found in his system go back to his first and only use of the anabolic agents nine months ago. He said he took a diuretic used for weight training to look better and improve his physique and added that he tried them for a month.