Midnight Mania! Rousey only ranked UFC fighter not tested by USADA in 2017

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Ronda Rousey remains ranked in the UFC after a year, but, despite Dana White’s claims, she wasn’t tested once in all of 2017.

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Bringing you the weird and wild from the world of MMA each and every weeknight

Welcome to Midnight Mania!

Ronda Rousey remains ranked in the UFC after a year, but, despite Dana White’s claims, she wasn’t tested once in all of 2017.

To clarify, Dana White claimed earlier this year that Rousey was still being tested.

“She has not retired. USADA is still popping up at her house testing her,” White said about Rousey. “She refuses to retire. She’s not ready to say ‘I quit.’ She’s not ready to say, ‘I’m done,’ for whatever reason. She doesn’t tick like everybody else ticks. We found that out over the years.”

Bloody Elbow’s Iain Kidd dug a little deeper and, in a piece of excellent reporting, found that a little-known loophole in the UFC-USADA arrangement could secretly allow fighters to avoid testing completely by retiring and then un-retiring. He put it succinctly, so I’ll just let him explain it:

Under the WADA code, athletes returning from retirement have to undergo testing for six months. WADA may give a waiver after consulting the relevant national anti-doping organization and sport federation. Under the UFC’s anti-doping policy, the UFC gives the waiver. I wrote about that here.

That wouldn’t be a big deal if we knew which athletes had retired. If an athlete suspiciously retired and un-retired, skipping the testing pool whenever they didn’t have a fight, we would notice, right? Wrong.

It turns out the UFC and USADA can, and do, hide that information. There is no way for anyone to see who is and is not part of the registered testing pool at any time. USADA cannot or will not confirm which athletes are part of the pool, and the UFC, thus far, haven’t even responded to questions about it.

Is this the case with Ronda Rousey? There isn’t any actual way to know. This is just another way that the UFC being held largely by private equity causes problems with the long-term integrity of the sport of mixed martial arts. Private equity groups such as the firms that financed the WME-IMG deal are exempt from many of the transparency and financial disclosure rules mandated with other forms of business, meaning that they can more or less do whatever they want. I wrote more about that issue here, but in the case of USADA, it essentially allows the UFC to play fast and loose with the rules (see: Brock Lesnar) in pursuit of short-term profit, to the neglect of long-term concerns.

Insomnia

UFC Flyweight champion Rose Namajunas with long hair threw me off. I love her look now, this Furiosa from Fury Road/Eleven from Stranger Things look works for me, but she looked good with long hair too.

Stipe Miocic looks like he’s from the 1920’s in this shot and he’s about to take a Tommy gun to some Chicago mobsters.

Stipe may refuse to be anything other than his quiet Midwestern self, may refuse to engage in a war of words, but he, without doubt, looks the part of heavyweight champion- and his record speaks for itself.

Pat Miletich’s Croatian grandma is with Stipe 100%.

Pettis got engaged to his girlfriend, Lisette Gadzuric, over New Years.

She happens to be very attractive. Good for Anthony.

Kajin Johnson is everyone who went out on New Year’s Eve.

All the Canadians are back in the gym- Rory Macdonald is prepping for his Bellator welterweight title fight against Douglas Lima.

Desus and Mero couldn’t help but comment on Gabi Garcia’s weird weigh-ins. That’s because Japanese MMA is amazing.

Check out this video of the first black world champion in boxing- from 1906. That’s 112-year-old footage.

McGregor does it for his Ma.

You can thank me for spotting this Jean Claude Van Damme hook kick to the face of then-UFC champion Cody Garbrandt.

Cyborg is angling for a quick turnaround fight with Megan Anderson at UFC 221. Hopefully it happens!

Random fan art can get you noticed!

Slips, Rips, and KO Clips

Which one was your favorite?

Moat Fights are by far the coolest version of MMA

Insomnia

TJ Dillashaw really wants this superfight with Mighty Mouse.

Kevin Lee says Justin Gaethje sounds like a good matchup for him.

Stay woke, Maniacs! Follow me on Twitter and Facebook @Vorpality