Report: Mystery USADA Impersonator Steals UFC Fighter Dan Ige’s Blood

Ige claims someone showed up at his door at 6:30 in the morning to collect blood, and it turns out they weren’t with USADA.

Since the UFC teamed up with USADA back in 2015, fighters on the roster have become used to people banging on their door at all hours of the day demanding blood and urine samples for drug testing. It’s annoying (especially the whereabouts element), but hey … it’s the price you pay for a moderately cleaner sport.

But sometimes collections don’t go smoothly. In the past, commissions and USADA reps have been turned away by fighters or their teams after questions are raised as to whether they’re actually who they say they are. We’ve always been slightly skeptical about these cases — with advanced PEDs clearing the system so fast it’s a big red flag when fighters duck even a single attempt to test.

But after what just happened to UFC featherweight Dan Ige, maybe triple checking a person’s identification isn’t a bad idea.

”So pissed off, someone came over this morning I thought it was USADA,” Ige wrote on Twitter. “They took my blood and everything, and [I] come to find out these people went to the wrong house address and did not work for USADA. WTF!!!!!”

”I’m so mad, and sure of this is my fault,” he followed up. “When someone rings your doorbell six times at 6:30 AM saying they’re here to take your blood, I was just cooperating thinking it’s USADA. Now I probably have AIDS.”

And just to be clear, Ige says he’s NOT joking.

At this point we have more questions than answers. Wrong house? Is there another athlete in the neighborhood subject to random testing? Was this the mystery blood grabber’s excuse or another 6AM assumption? Shouldn’t USADA have a standard process of proactively identifying themselves and confirming their identity to avoid situations like this? It hardly seems wise to put the onus on fighters to ensure USADA employees are indeed USADA employees, especially when they’re showing up at the break of dawn.

We’ll keep you updated once we know more about this mystery drug tester stealing blood from UFC fighters. For now, we’d recommend UFC fighters ask for ID before handing their bodily fluid over to random people.

Update: One more tweet from Ige on the matter so far…