Tyron Woodley Claims USADA Recently Cost Him $10,000

Welterweight champion Tyron Woodley has a beef with USADA.

“The Chosen One” was in Atlanta, Georgia, for Super Bowl Weekend earlier this month. He had a number of high-profile parties and events to attend, some of which paid him to appear.

However, some of those appearances fell apart due to an unexpected visit. Woodley opened up about a late night call from the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) during this week’s UFC 235 media luncheon. The champ revealed that a USADA agent called him late at night during one of the days and didn’t arrive until well after midnight. Woodley said he missed the events and was out $10,000 as a result (quotes from MMA Fighting):

“They tested me Super Bowl weekend,” Woodley said. “The lady came to me, bless her soul, because I said a few unchoice words to her. But with respect. She came to test me at 12 a.m. on Super Bowl weekend. Knowing the reason I was in Atlanta was probably for the Super Bowl. And I had some appearances that I was supposed to be at. I had an event with [NFL player] Devonta Freeman and Meek Mill I was supposed to be at, an event with Ludacris and an event with Snoop Dogg.”

Waiting Around

The champion waited for the testing agent to traverse a lengthy stretch of traffic. Woodley also tried to get USADA to test him the following morning, but to no avail:

“And I was in the hotel waiting on her to come in 45 minutes of traffic to test me. So, she tested me around 1 a.m. And I missed those events. So I asked her, I said, ‘Why can’t you test me in the morning? I’m gonna be here.’ [She said,] ‘Oh let me call them and ask them if I can test you in the morning.’ They said, ’No, I gotta test you now.’”

Understandably annoyed at the inconvience, Woodley said he asked why he hadn’t been tested earlier that day. In an odd twist, the agent said she had an ‘event’ to attend, the exact same thing he was missing to be tested:

“Why in the hell didn’t you test me earlier today?” Woodley said he asked. “‘Oh I had an event I had to go to.’ I have an event I have to go to that I’m missing money because I’m supposed to be there. She said, ‘Oh, I can meet you there.’ I said, ‘No, you can’t get in, you can’t get on the list.’ So I had to wait there and she had to test me at 1 a.m. And I was not happy.”

USADA Reacts

MMA Fighting then contacted UFC spokesperson Adam Woullard for comment on the situation. He stated that Woodley had not provided USADA with enough relevant information about his plans on their whereabouts app. If they had been, other plans could have been arranged:

“USADA makes attempts based off of the information athletes provide on their whereabouts filings,” Woullard wrote. “If whereabouts are kept up to date with accurate information, and we see situations that don’t make sense logistically, we will plan accordingly. In this case, the opportunity seemed appropriate given the information we had and we weren’t aware that Woodley had a paid appearance when we made initial contact with him.”

Woodley will take on Kamaru Usman in the co-main event of this weekend’s UFC 235 from Las Vegas, Nevada. It’s the biggest UFC card of the year thus far, so Woodley won’t need the $10,000 that bad. Of course, it’s the principle of the matter, however.

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