UFC middleweight contender Derek Brunson had a rocky experience with the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) this week.
Brunson, a UFC veteran, is coming off of a second-round TKO loss to Jared Cannonier at UFC 271. Before that, he was arguably one of the hottest middleweights in the UFC with five-straight victories over the likes of Darren Till and Kevin Holland.
Brunson has been in the UFC since his debut win over Chris Leben at UFC 155. While the sport and the UFC have equally grown in big ways since he first made the walk to the Octagon, he still thinks something needs to be done when it comes to USADA and its partnership with fighters.
In a recent series of tweets, Brunson detailed an incident in which USADA notified him of a failed check-in for a drug test.
“[USADA] has to be the worst testing program out,” Brunson said. “Imagine trying to handle business outside of the octagon and having to take quick flights to check on properties, having a family and other stuff going on, etc and them giving you failures because you forgot to update the glitchy app. There’s several athletes out here taking peds but no one failing. Get your gps feature back. Giving someone a failed whereabouts isn’t the same as someone failing a ped test.”
The USADA program with the UFC began in late 2015 to ensure safety and integrity not just with the promotion, but the sport in general.
Brunson went on to provide some clarity to the incident in a later tweet and said he could be on the verge of a significant penalty.
“Just to be clear. Usada gave me a whereabouts infraction because I didn’t update my location,” Brunson said. “Stating I have 2 whereabout infractions and 1 more could result in a 2 year suspension. They use to have gps tracking, maybe get back the system that worked for fighters!”
Brunson hasn’t violated USADA’s anti-doping policies since the program’s inception. Before USADA’s arrival, Brunson never tested positive for a banned substance.
Brunson currently doesn’t have a fight lined up at the moment after delaying his earlier retirement plans. In the meantime, he’ll look to resolve the issue he had with USADA and their check-in app.
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