Even after a week of speculation, public disputes and good, solid reporting by MMA’s best journalists, there is still a lot we don’t know about Cung Le’s positive drug test.
At this point, though, the simple question of Le’s guilt or innocence has become secondary to the one thing we can say with absolute certainty:
The UFC can’t continue to oversee its own drug-testing program. It needs help.
Last week, the fight company self-reported that the 42-year-old Le tested positive for “an excess level of Human Growth Hormone in his system” following his UFC Fight Night 48 bout against Michael Bisping in Macau, China. As a result, the former Strikeforce middleweight champion received a nine-month suspension.
We all agree it was a good thing the UFC reported this. We also agree it’s admirable that the organization regulates its own affairs when it ventures to places lacking their own athletic commissions. On top of that, it’s great—stupendous, really—that the UFC will ramp up its testing efforts come 2015, according to multiple recent reports.
But the devil here, as the old saying goes, is in the details.
In the wake of Le’s suspension, the fighter denied any wrongdoing, and his camp took issue with many aspects of the UFC’s testing program. Under normal circumstances, that would only qualify as the usual kvetching and misdirection of a drug cheat caught red-handed.
In Le’s case, however, some of the issues raised last Thursday by manager Gary Ibarra have been independently vetted and now appear to have at least some merit.
In a story published Wednesday by MMA Junkie’s Ben Fowlkes, leading anti-doping scientist Dr. Don Catlin echoed many of Ibarra’s complaints. Catlin said the UFC sent Le’s sample to a lab not accredited by the World Anti-Doping Agency. That lab wasn’t equipped to properly test for HGH and, according to Catlin, also violated general protocols by destroying Le’s sample before proper testing could be done.
“I think (the test done by the UFC) is useless,” Catlin said. “I wouldn’t pay any attention to it all.”
Strong words from an independent doctor, which appear to dovetail with many of Le’s original claims. Ibarra’s initial statement said a phlebotomist hired by the UFC took Le’s sample immediately after his fourth-round TKO loss to Bisping in August. The timing alone could’ve resulted in a positive test, the manager said, so the need to conduct the proper testing was cast in even sharper relief. When Ibarra contacted the UFC to ask for additional testing, he was told Le’s sample had already been discarded.
“I’m not sure how far ahead they were thinking when they decided to implement their own drug testing…,” Ibarra told Fowlkes. “If I’m speculating, I think the UFC saw the test, saw the results (and) said, ‘We caught him,’ and in a rush to show everybody that they’re tough on drugs, they did not make sure that it was accurate and correct.”
On top of all this, it remains unclear if an appeals process even exists for Le. To date, the UFC has said very little on the subject. Last Wednesday, the company announced that Le’s suspension was actually for one year, not nine months after “an error was discovered.”
On Monday, the organization told MMA Junkie: “We stand by the results and subsequent suspension. We have no further comment.”
Which brings us back to the real crux of this story. The UFC simply can’t continue to oversee its own drug-testing program, especially if it plans to do even more testing next year. The job is simply too big, too intricate and too important for the fight company to handle on its own.
If you’ve read this far, the reasons for this should be obvious. So far, the UFC’s self-administered testing program appears to lack desperately needed transparency; it leaves too many gray areas and puts the organization in too awkward a dual role as promoter and regulator.
The UFC needs to reach an agreement with a respected, independent third-party testing organization, which could handle all future testing in strict adherence to the WADA code.
There’s a reason those organizations exist—and it’s not only to ensure proper and reliable testing, handling and chain of custody. It also puts a much-needed buffer between athlete and employer. It puts in place a manageable appeals process and guarantees that if questions arise about a test, responsibility does not fall solely on the promoter.
The UFC should be commended for taking steps to improve its drug testing. But that testing needs to be above reproach. Making sure all future testing is handled by independent regulators will be worth it, no matter what the price.
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