After more than seven years (and millions of dollars), Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) will end its “untenable” relationship with United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) at the beginning of 2024. The promotion is expected to turn over all drug testing responsibilities to Drug Free Sport International (DFSI) by way of Sports Medicine Research and Testing Laboratory (SMRTL), helmed by independent administrator George Piro.
UFC executives spent a good portion of their anti-USADA press conference selling the career accomplishments of Piro, insisting the former FBI special agent “will make every decision in the program and that the authority will be his and his alone.” What they didn’t tell us was that Piro trains at American Top Team (ATT), one of the most prolific gyms in mixed martial arts (MMA) and home to several active UFC fighters.
This is clearly a conflict of interest (certainly not the first), but without collective bargaining, UFC fighters have no choice but to accept what the promotion gives them, for better or worse.
“What I watched of that press conference, that was probably the one thing that turned me off the most,” UFC welterweight Matt Brown told MMA Fighting. “So the UFC decides George Piro’s in charge. Nobody else has any say. The UFC decides this. Then when they ask about his credibility and integrity and everything, their answer is basically, ‘Trust me, bro.’ I just didn’t like that.”
The relationship between UFC and USADA began to sour after the promotion tried to rush its biggest pay-per-view (PPV) draw, Conor McGregor, back to competition in time to capitalize on The Ultimate Fighter (TUF) 31 hype. Unfortunately, USADA stuck to its guns and refused to make any special exceptions.
Or just had a public meltdown like Brittney Spears, depending on who you ask.
“All I hope with the whole thing — and unfortunately we can all only hope, because again we don’t have collective bargaining and we don’t really have a say in all this — what we have to hope is that it is as fair as it can be,” Brown continued. “That George Piro isn’t helping [American Top Team] athletes with an advantage because he’s training beside them.”
I’m sure there’s no reason to believe anyone with the character befitting a top position in the FBI would drag their feet or look the other way … right?