Now that United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) is no longer drug testing UFC fighters, some of the promotion’s top athletes are sharing their horror stories from their days in the organization’s Whereabouts Program. The process included USADA inspectors showing up unannounced at all hours of the day and night for surprise sample collections.
UFC bantamweight Cody Stamann was ill-prepared for such a visit after drinking with his buddies one Friday night, leading to an awkward (and pants-less ) encounter with a new USADA employee.
Stamann shared the incident with The Score:
So I grabbed my gun — a 1911 .45 handgun — off my nightstand, I ran to the front door, and just absolutely ripped the door open, just standing there completely balls-out naked. I didn’t actually point the gun at him but I had two hands on the gun, standing there in a fighting stance.
This guy turned around and he looked at me and he was like, ‘Uh, I’m USADA, I’m here to do a drug test for you.’ I saw immediately that he was a testing officer. I recognized the USADA T-shirt. I said, ‘Will you give me just one second, please,’ and he went, ‘Take all the time you need.’
I went to shut the door and he was like, ‘No, no, no, I gotta go with you.’ I was like, ‘Are you serious? OK.’ So I went to the laundry room and threw some shorts on. Instinctively, I still had the gun in my hand. He asked, ‘Will you please put that down?’ And I was like, ‘Yeah, dude, my bad.’
This guy was shook. He said to me, ‘I just started working here this week.’ I was like, ‘Am I your first person?’ And he said, ‘No, you’re my second.’
I never saw the guy again. That had to have been a terrifying thing for him: a naked man pulling a gun on you. He was trying to sign his name – they have a tablet where they have to sign their name – and I could physically see his hand was shaking. I shook this guy to his core.
Maybe it was the same guy who was at Lando Vannata’s door.
After parting ways with UFC because of their “untenable” relationship, USADA was replaced by Drug Free Sport International (DFSI), a move that did not come without its share of controversy. As for Stamann, the 34 year-old “Spartan” has not competed since dropping a decision to Douglas Silva de Andrade at UFC on ABC 4 last May.