The buzz around UFC 200 was amplified ten fold this past Saturday June 4, as the promotion teased the return of former heavyweight champion Brock Lesnar for the July 9 event. The major milestone pay-per-view card was already rather stacked, with the rematch between Daniel Cormier and Jon Jones s the main event and title fights at women’s bantamweight and (interim) featherweight to boot. The addition of Lesnar with his soon revealed opponent Mark Hunt in the co-main event was truly the icing on the cake.
Lesnar would go one ESPN’s SportsCenter this week to make his opening statement about the fight, confirming he’d be going against the heavy handed ‘Super Samoan’ in a one-time deal allowed by the WWE. The return of Lesnar threw a very interesting twist on the UFC 200 card, but the news hasn’t come without it’s fair share of controversy.
Although there is a drug testing procedure in place over in the WWE, there were obvious questions about whether or not Lesnar would be ‘clean’ coming in to his UFC return. Any athlete returning to action in the UFC is required to give four months notice to abide by the new USADA (United States Anti Doping Agency) policy, a policy that was recently waived to accommodate Lesnar’s comeback.
On June 6, 2016, UFC heavyweight Brock Lesnar was registered by USADA into the UFC Anti-Doping Policy testing pool. As part of the UFC Anti-Doping Policy, UFC may grant a former athlete an exemption to the four-month written notice rules in exceptional circumstances or where the strict application of that rule would be manifestly unfair to an athlete. Given Lesnar last competed in UFC on December 30, 2011, long before the UFC Anti-Doping Policy went into effect, for purposes of the Anti-Doping Policy, he is being treated similarly to a new athlete coming into the organization.”
“While conversations with the heavyweight have been ongoing for some time, Lesnar required permission from WWE to compete in UFC 200 and only agreed to terms and signed a bout agreement last Friday. He was therefore unable to officially start the Anti-Doping Policy process any earlier. UFC, however, did notify Lesnar in the early stages of discussions that if he were to sign with the UFC, he would be subject to all of the anti-doping rules. Lesnar and his management have now been formally educated by USADA on the policy, procedures and expectations.”
So Lesnar gets a pass on the four-month rule, which does not mean he’ll be able to avoid drug testing fr this point onward, but it’s not surprising that the waiver has caused a bit of a stir among other UFC fighters.
Mark Hunt has heard this news, and is seriously unhappy about it, as was former Lesnar opponent Shane Carwin.
Skip to page 2 for Mark Hunt and Shane Carwin’s reactions…
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