Fighters from now on will be screened for performance-enhancing drugs prior to signing with the UFC or Strikeforce, Zuffa announced Tuesday.
This announcement comes off the heels of two straight Strikeforce events with drug test failures from major Strikeforce players. In the last 11 days, athletic commissions have named both former women’s 145-lb. champ Cris Cyborg and former 205-lb. champ Muhammed “King Mo” Lawal in positive steroid tests.
“The health and safety of our athletes is our top priority,” UFC president Dana White said in a press release. “We’ve seen the issues performance-enhancing drugs have caused in other sports and we’re going to do everything we can to keep them out of the UFC and Strikeforce. Our athletes are already held to the highest testing standards in all sports by athletic commissions. Our new testing policy for performance-enhancing drugs only further shows how important it is to us to have our athletes competing on a level playing field.”
Current UFC and Strikeforce fighters will continue to be drug tested before and after fights as well as randomly in accordance with respective athletic commissions.
The policy of screening potential signees for PEDs officially came into effect Jan. 1.