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UFC Planning to Implement Random, Enhanced Drug Testing for All Fighters

(Until now, the UFC has mainly relied on the “screenshot comparison” method.)

In the wake of some high-profile UFC drug-test failures for performance enhancers like HGH and EPO this year — as well as a resurgence in positive tests for old-school steroids — the UFC has announced plans to implement random, out-of-competition drug testing for all of its fighters. ESPN.com’s Brett Okamoto broke the news last night.

Until now, UFC brass has claimed that the expense of such a program would be prohibitive, and the promotion has left much of the drug-testing responsibility in the hands of local athletic commissions, only supporting random testing on an occasional basis. But with the PED epidemic growing worse in MMA, the sport’s leading promotion will be making the financial investment necessary to combat the problem, and UFC officials hope to have the new drug-screening system in place by the end of the year. From the ESPN report:

According to UFC vice president of regulatory affairs Marc Ratner, the promotion is in discussion with “four to five” independent drug-testing agencies and is hopeful to officially partner with one by the end of 2014.

The end goal is unannounced, year-round blood and urine tests on the UFC’s stable of approximately 500 athletes using an independent sample collector.

“We are meeting with different companies right now and we’re going to have out-of-competition testing,” Ratner told ESPN.com. “We’re not sure when it’s going to start, but we’re working on it right now.

“Unannounced blood and urine is going to happen, hopefully in the next three or four months. When you’re talking about 500 fighters, there are a lot of logistics. Having fighters in foreign countries makes it tougher, but we’re coming up with a plan and (agencies) are making proposals to us in the next two weeks”…

(Until now, the UFC has mainly relied on the “screenshot comparison” method.)

The end goal is unannounced, year-round blood and urine tests on the UFC’s stable of approximately 500 athletes using an independent sample collector.

The UFC has worked with several commissions this year to implement an “enhanced program,” which blood-tests athletes during the weeks before a fight, as opposed to traditional fight night urine tests. The cost of one of those programs can be in excess of $40,000. The majority of state athletic commissions simply can’t afford those costs…

Partnering with an independent party, such as the United States Anti-Doping Agency or the Voluntary Anti-Doping Association, for example, could help lower costs for the UFC. Ratner declined to provide specifics of the proposed program, citing ongoing internal discussions.

“The UFC will be randomly testing a percentage of fighters,” Ratner said. “When we decide on this regiment, it’s going to be a big cost but it’s well worth it when we do these out-of-competition tests.”

The reason an enhanced program is necessary is that certain banned substances are only detectable in blood and only for a short amount of time. Random blood testing is far more effective than the urine tests athletes expect to take the night of a fight…

The UFC has expressed its commitment in lowering PED use by funding the enhanced programs in Nevada, Maryland and British Columbia. Additionally, Ratner says all incoming athletes are tested before signing a contract with the UFC. Last weekend in Macau, China, the UFC implemented blood testing for the first time at a self-regulated event. Still, the need for comprehensive, year-round random blood tests is undeniable in MMA.

Inside the UFC specifically, that need has drawn plenty of attention in 2014.

UFC light heavyweight champion Jon Jones requested random blood tests ahead of a title defense against Glover Teixeira in Baltimore. Former welterweight champion Georges St-Pierre has stated he will not compete in the UFC again unless he and his opponent are tested by a “credible, independent anti-doping organization.”

Starting with Nevada’s banning of TRT exceptions back in February, 2014 has been an incredibly productive year for anti-PED measures in MMA. Random, enhanced testing for all UFC fighters will mark another significant step toward cleaning up the sport. Of course, to really give the new policy some teeth, cheaters will have to be caught early enough to actually prevent them from competing; punishing them after the fact doesn’t do much to fix the problem of juiced-up fighters in the Octagon.

Nevertheless, it’s good to see the UFC put some effort into fighting the sport’s drug problem. Thumbs up, guys.

Roy Nelson, Shane Carwin Tapped for Random Drug Testing by NSAC, Ahead of TUF 16 Finale Fight

(Not pictured: Fabricio Werdum and Junior Dos Santos, merrily sharing a caipirinha.)

All of Roy Nelson‘s rabble-rousing about drug-testing has paid off…sort of. While Big Country has been campaigning to have his upcoming fight against Shane Carwin overseen by the Voluntary Anti-Doping Agency (VADA), it was confirmed today that the Nevada State Athletic Commission has informed both fighters that they’ll be subject to random testing at some point before their December 15th meeting at the TUF 16 Finale. The fighters will need to provide samples within 24 hours of request, and the results will be returned in approximately two weeks.

(Serious question: The NSAC is completely within its rights to randomly drug test fighters out of competition, so why is it necessary to inform those fighters that that’s what it intends to do? I’m just saying, if you were Nelson or Carwin, and you were, hypothetically, using steroids up until yesterday, and the NSAC calls you and says they’re going to randomly test you sometime in the next two months, wouldn’t that be your signal to stop using PEDs immediately and hope they’re out of your system by the time they ask for your piss?)

If you’ve been keeping up on this story, you know that Carwin’s camp had been against VADA’s involvement from the beginning, with Shane’s manager Jason Genet calling VADA an “opportunistic” organization with an “anti-Shane” bias, and questioning why an independent testing body is any better than the athletic commission testing currently in place for MMA fighters. “I’m questioning where the relevancy coming from,” Genet said earlier this week. “As a manager, it’s not that I wouldn’t agree with outside testing. I want to know what’s wrong with what’s currently taking place.”

(Not pictured: Fabricio Werdum and Junior Dos Santos, merrily sharing a caipirinha.)

So here’s Brent Brookhouse of BloodyElbow, pointing out the criticism that this immediately opens Shane and his camp up to:

First of all, “what’s wrong with the testing” is that it’s woefully bad. VADA tests for more substances and via more methods than anything the commissions are doing. Commissions aren’t engaging in Carbon Isotope Ratio testing, VADA is. To act like there’s the slightest debate over if VADA is better than the commission checking urine is absurd and nonsense of the highest degree…Now, with Carwin’s prior attachment to a steroid pharmacy and now looking like they’re ducking VADA testing, the accepted best method for combat sports testing, is not going to make Shane look particularly good.

And wasn’t that Nelson’s intention all along? Like BJ Penn and Floyd Mayweather before him, this public outcry to “clean up the sport” is just a new form of gamesmanship, in which a fighter can make his opponent come off as a cheater in the eyes of the public, simply by refusing the special terms laid out by his opponent. If Carwin winds up whooping Nelson’s ass, Nelson can always call the result into question. Who knows what Shane was really using before the fight, right? The VADA testing could have revealed the truth, but Shane ducked it. Maybe the fight would have gone a different way if blah blah blah, etc.

For now, the NSAC’s random testing will have to be good enough. And while that testing isn’t the most effective method available, it’s not completely useless either.

Nevada to Re-Launch Out-of-Competition Drug Testing for Combat Sports

(Steroids: You’re doing it wrong. Bizarre photo-illustration via SportsNickel)

Last Wednesday, Nevada Governor Brian Sandoval signed a bill that will provide more funds for out-of-competition steroid testing of MMA fighters, boxers, and kickboxers. The money will come from an existing ticket fee, and will pay for random drug screenings at any time, including training periods. The new law goes into effect July 1st.

Currently, the Nevada State Athletic Commission gets $1 per ticket sold for large MMA/boxing events, and 50 cents for smaller events that gross less than $500,000. Some of that money will now be diverted to year-round testing of performance enhancing drugs, both at a professional and amateur level.

It’s not the first time that Nevada has tried to do this. MMAFighting passes along some history:

(Steroids: You’re doing it wrong. Bizarre photo-illustration via SportsNickel)

It’s not the first time that Nevada has tried to do this. MMAFighting passes along some history:

…Nevada can randomly test any licensed fighter at any time. The state’s commission has had that power since early 2008 but often lacked the funds to employ it. UFC 84 fighters Sean Sherk and B.J. Penn were among the first to be tested out of competition, but within two years, the program was unfunded and unused. By February 2011, the program was out of money after legislators withdrew its funding, effectively rendering it useless as a weapon to catch drug cheats.

Immediately afterward, commission executive director Keith Kizer requested the state find a new source of revenue to fund the program, and the newly signed bill is the compromise.

Keep in mind that funds from the dollar-per-ticket fee won’t lead to a dramatic windfall for the NSAC:

Last year, for example, the UFC held six events in Nevada that drew a total of over 40,000 paid fans. It included four pay-per-view events that drew $1 million-plus gates, and two smaller Ultimate Fighter Finales that drew less than $500,000 each. Those ticket sales resulted in Nevada earning $39,189.50 in fees.

Still, it’ll be enough to keep the program alive, and keep Nevada-licensed fighters somewhat honest. (California has also effectively used out-of-competition testing in the past, as Josh Barnett found out the hard way in 2009.) Anyway, if you’re a fan of healthy fighters and a level playing field, it’s a positive step forward. “Cycling” won’t be as easy to pull off when a little man in a white lab-coat could show up at your gym on any random afternoon, without warning.

Previously: MMA Steroid Busts: The Definitive Timeline