UFC President Dana White (Photo by Victor Decolongon/Getty Images North America)
With a number of fighters testing positive for performance enhancing drugs and some calls for stricter drug testing within the sport of mixed martial arts, UFC president Dana White feels that under the current rules most of his fighters will end up under suspension but not for PED use.
Speaking to reporters on Thursday, White told reporters that he thinks many fighters would test positive for marijuana use and therefore under most commission rules would be out for a year due to suspension.
(Quote via NESN.com)
“Forget about PEDs,” White said. “If we get into this system that we’re talking about where we would randomly test these guys, do you know how many guys would probably test positive for marijuana? It would be probably off the charts. “If you randomly test them and then [the results] came out, you’d get the exact same suspension [for using marijuana] as you do for using PEDs.”
“But [giving fighters similar suspensions for using both PEDs and marijuana] is just crazy,” White said after acknowledging the danger of PEDs in MMA. “It’s so easy to sit there and say, ‘Here’s what you should do. Here’s how you fix it,’ but there are so many flaws in the system, it’s just not that easy. It’s not just, ‘Hey, let’s sign up this company [to do testing].’ There’s a whole [expletive] of things that would come about.”
“Everybody thinks that if you did this random testing you’d catch so many guys on PEDs,” White said. “No. You’d catch more of the guys on marijuana. That’s where you’d really bust a lot of guys. … We have 475 guys under contract and probably 400 of them would be out with marijuana.”
Current UFC welterweight contender Nick Diaz is currently sitting out a year’s suspension for a positive test for marijuana metabolites following a decision loss to Carlos Condit last February at UFC 143. Also under suspensions is heavyweight Dave Herman who was handed a six month suspension following a submission loss to Antônio Rodrigo Nogueira last October at UFC 153.
Be sure to read more of White’s comments at NESN.com.