LAS VEGAS – In part due to the Cung Le testing fiasco, the UFC has dropped its plan to implement its own out-of-competition drug testing.
Instead, the company will donate money to state athletic commissions in order to enable them to conduct the year-round, random testing, UFC president Dana White told reporters on Thursday.
“What we’ll do is we’ll help fund it so they can do better drug testing, more drug testing,” White said. “They can handle it. They’re the regulators.”
White used the example of the infamous Le test after UFC Fight Night 48. In that case, Le’s bout with Michael Bisping was held in Macau, where there is no regulatory body for combat sports.
While White said that Le tested 18 times the normal level for human growth hormone, the questions that arose after Le challenged the results caused the test results to be scrapped.
Additionally, White believes the bad feelings that came out of the test played a role in Le joining the current class-action lawsuit against the company.
The Le test was part of the UFC’s process for postfight testing in international events with no regulatory body. While that process won’t change, it was enough to make them think twice about whether they should be the ones running out-of-competition testing.
“Our legal team completely screwed that thing up,” White said. “We have no business doing drug testing. We f– it up, and we will f– it up again. That’s what the commission is there to do.”