Tag: VADA

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.)

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.”

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.

Friday Link Dump: Grisly Details on Jeremy Stephens’ Alleged Assault, Drug Testing Controversy on TUF + More


(If only the fight were held under West Coast Pose-Down rules, Bonnar would actually have a chance. / Photo via MMAFighting.com, click for full-size image.)

– Cops: Jeremy Stephens’ Alleged Victim Beaten Unconscious, Stopped Breathing Twice (MMAFighting)

– UFC 153: Bonnar vs. Silva, Tex Cobb vs. Larry Holmes and Courage Through Standing in Front of a Locomotive (BloodyElbow)

– Erick Silva Talks Twilight Series, Fighting Jon Fitch (HeavyMMA)

– Jon Fitch: Getting Title Shots Is A ‘Popularity Contest’ (Fightline)

– VADA Offers Drug Testing for TUF Finale Main Event, Carwin’s Camp Says That’s News to Them (MMAWeekly)

– Bellator 76’s Rad Martinez Out to Prove He’s no ‘Charity Case’ (MMAJunkie)

– Emily Ratajkowski Gets Saucy with Sara Underwood in Carl’s Jr Ad (MensFitness)

– 30 Hilarious Animal Photobombs (Complex)

– The Ultimate Faceplants Compilation (WorldWideInterweb)

– Chefs of Anarchy: New York’s Best Fries (MadeMan)

– Christopher Walken Reads “Honey Boo Boo” (ScreenJunkies)

– Russian Soldiers Flee Exploding Ammunition Stockpiles (EgoTV)

– B*tch, Get Off My Bus: Uppercut Edition (WorldStar, Baby)


(If only the fight were held under West Coast Pose-Down rules, Bonnar would actually have a chance. / Photo via MMAFighting.com, click for full-size image.)

– Cops: Jeremy Stephens’ Alleged Victim Beaten Unconscious, Stopped Breathing Twice (MMAFighting)

– UFC 153: Bonnar vs. Silva, Tex Cobb vs. Larry Holmes and Courage Through Standing in Front of a Locomotive (BloodyElbow)

– Erick Silva Talks Twilight Series, Fighting Jon Fitch (HeavyMMA)

– Jon Fitch: Getting Title Shots Is A ‘Popularity Contest’ (Fightline)

– VADA Offers Drug Testing for TUF Finale Main Event, Carwin’s Camp Says That’s News to Them (MMAWeekly)

– Bellator 76′s Rad Martinez Out to Prove He’s no ‘Charity Case’ (MMAJunkie)

– Emily Ratajkowski Gets Saucy with Sara Underwood in Carl’s Jr Ad (MensFitness)

– 30 Hilarious Animal Photobombs (Complex)

– The Ultimate Faceplants Compilation (WorldWideInterweb)

– Chefs of Anarchy: New York’s Best Fries (MadeMan)

– Christopher Walken Reads “Honey Boo Boo” (ScreenJunkies)

– Russian Soldiers Flee Exploding Ammunition Stockpiles (EgoTV)

– B*tch, Get Off My Bus: Uppercut Edition (WorldStar, Baby)

BJ Penn Offers to Pay for UFC 152 VADA Drug Testing, Given a Stipulation

BJ Penn is so adamant about he Voluntary Anti-Doping Association administering drug testing for his UFC 152 headlining bout with Rory MacDonald, he’s willing to foot the bill.  That is, with one condition: the drug test results must be kept …

BJ Penn is so adamant about he Voluntary Anti-Doping Association administering drug testing for his UFC 152 headlining bout with Rory MacDonald, he’s willing to foot the bill.  That is, with one condition: the drug test results must be kept confidential until after the fight, Penn told MMA Junkie. Penn explained that his offer came […]

Don’t Worry, BJ Penn Will Clean Up MMA’s Steroid Problem Himself If He Has To


(Careful, BJ — drinking Sean Sherk’s blood is one of the easiest ways to get a false positive.)

In a Floyd Mayweather-esque bit of gamesmanship, BJ Penn went on twitter yesterday to make a unique “offer” to his next opponent, welterweight prodigy Rory MacDonald:

“VADA anti-doping has offered to sponsor our upcoming fight. I’ve accepted and invite you to help me clean up the sport. VADA results will be released after the fight to ensure that the fight happens. Lets get started asap!!”

You see what he did there? If Rory refuses to undergo VADA’s voluntary PED screenings, well then he’s a doper, and by extension, all the accusations that Penn previously made about MacDonald’s mentor Georges St. Pierre were accurate, and BJ Penn is the last honest man in the sport. (Like the fight itself, this whole VADA business just seems to be a way for Penn to stick it to his old buddy GSP.)


(Careful, BJ — drinking Sean Sherk’s blood is one of the easiest ways to get a false positive.)

In a Floyd Mayweather-esque bit of gamesmanship, BJ Penn went on twitter yesterday to make a unique “offer” to his next opponent, welterweight prodigy Rory MacDonald:

“VADA anti-doping has offered to sponsor our upcoming fight. I’ve accepted and invite you to help me clean up the sport. VADA results will be released after the fight to ensure that the fight happens. Lets get started asap!!”

You see what he did there? If Rory refuses to undergo VADA’s voluntary PED screenings, well then he’s a doper, and by extension, all the accusations that Penn previously made about MacDonald’s mentor Georges St. Pierre were accurate, and BJ Penn is the last honest man in the sport. (Like the fight itself, this whole VADA business just seems to be a way for Penn to stick it to his old buddy GSP.)

And how about this “results will be released after the fight to ensure that the fight happens” business? Translation: “Even if you decide to use steroids during this training camp, nobody has to know until after the fight, and we can both still get paid, so it’s totally cool.” Is that supposed to make us feel better about VADA’s legitimacy, or Penn’s commitment to fair competition? How is this going to “clean up the sport” if the fight could theoretically still proceed with at least one of the fighters using performance enhancing drugs? What’s Penn’s angle here, outside of self-promotion?

Luckily, MacDonald has already responded to this mess: “already worried BJ? honestly i think its a great idea 2, and im ready to do the testing for our fight as well.”

Now, whether or not the UFC will actually allow Penn and MacDonald to go rogue and conduct their own drug testing outside of the athletic commissions is beside the point, I guess. But it’s nice to see MacDonald call Penn’s bluff. Once again, I’m reminded of the eerie prophecy that Penn made at the end of this classic clip. MacDonald is that 12-year-old kid, finally meeting up with the original “Prodigy” at the end of his career. No amount of fight-stipulations in the world are going to prevent the inevitable from happening.

Penn vs. MacDonald is slated to go down at UFC 152, September 22nd at the Air Canada Centre in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.