USADA collectors go through all sorts of difficulty getting samples from fighters. PVZ knows all about it.
USADA is on its way out at the end of 2023, to be replaced by a mysterious new organization called Combat Sports Anti-Doping. It’s not a glamorous job as you’re about to learn from Paige VanZant.
VanZant is currently signed with Bare Knuckle FC, but she made her name as a UFC fighter from 2014 to 2020. During that time she also appeared on Dancing with the Stars and Chopped, amongst other reality shows. That doesn’t mean she wasn’t subject to all the awful and awkward moments fighters are, especially when it comes to anti-doping.
“I was about to fight Alex Chambers in Las Vegas, Nevada,” VanZant recalled on her YouTube channel. “And this was right when USADA got implemented in the UFC. So my drug testers show up right after weigh-ins. So I’m in my hotel room re-hydrating. Every single time I would weigh-in, I would try to re-hydrate, instantly sick.”
“So, part of USADA is once they see you, you cannot leave their sight, because, you know, it’s the whole anti-doping,” she continued. “Maybe you’re gonna go do something to mask the drugs or take something. I don’t even know. So, I had my drug tester in the bathroom with me for two hours, while I s— my brains out.”
This is par for the course with USADA. They need to make sure the samples a fighter is giving actually comes from the fighter, which involves a lot of careful scrutiny in the bathroom. The testers that collected the 100+ samples from Paulo Costa and Jiri Prochazka probably know those guys intimately by now.
We’ll see in 2024 how closely the new UFC anti-doping program is watching. In some ways it would be good for them to be a bit more chill.