Since the UFC dropped USADA (probably because of Conor McGregor, though they deny it of course), the question was: are they going to go back to just having commissions do testing? Or go with another agency.
Today we found out that the UFC is going to use Drug Free Sport International to do their testing, noting that DFSI has handled drug testing for the NFL, MLB, and NBA.
That's hardly a stirring endorsement when you think about how roided players are in the NFL, have been in the NBA, and still are in MLB.
Clearly the UFC regretted hiring USADA, who actually tries to find drug users and punish them. It was a strange move for the UFC to go from very lax testing (just administered by the state athletic commissions) and allowing Therapeutic Use Exemptions for TRT, to a zero-tolerance organization like USADA.
The Jon Jones debacle was the first sign the partnership was running out of steam. After a few high-profile (and many low-profile) fighters had popped, Jones popped again for "pulsing" metabolites of oral turinabol. USADA relented on this one and Jeff Nowitsky, UFC's liaison with USADA, bent over backwards to explain why this wasn't a problem. For the first time USADA let it's zero-tolerance down.
The Conor McGregor story was the last straw. McGregor wanted to fight without entering the program fully; he felt he needed just two positive tests—which he could get if he knew when they were coming, like old-school Athletic Commission testing. But USADA stood firm that he needed six months of random testing. By looking at McGregor's physique in his time off from the sport, six months seems like a minimum.
USADA says that was the breaking point, while the UFC has angrily denied that. But it's hard to imagine what the problem was if not that. Other than perhaps, the UFC realized they made a mistake. Why go with an organization that's actually going to interfere, potentially, with your business? And given that many fighters use PEDs and USADA's methods are good at catching them, that was bound to happen a lot.
DFSI, on the other hand, is a very League-friendly testing agency. NFL players still pop once in a while, though it's hard to imagine how. Carelessness? Forgetting when their scheduled test is? There is allegedly some random testing done in the NFL, but some players weren't selected for years and if a player is actually randomly tested multiple times, it makes the news. They still catch more than 10 players per year, which is amazing.
Same story with the NBA, which has a real PED problem obviously, and MLB, which people seem to think has "cleaned itself up" since the late-90s era of Sosa and McGuire and early 2000s with Barry Bonds and Alex Hernandez. But has it? There are home run hitters much bigger than McGuire around and no one suspects anything. Because apparently baseball "cleaned itself up."
So what we'll get with DFSI is a more Dana White-friendly testing regimen. Conor McGregor will fight in UFC 300, hell maybe Brock Lesnar will be back. Fighters who got smaller during USADA will get bigger again. It won't go back to the old days of just commission testing, but it won't be like it was during USADA.
A lot of people think this is better. Many fans hated USADA for making fighters visibly smaller, more prone to getting tired during fights, etc. Others think it's better to have a level playing field for those who can achieve without the use of PEDs, and that it's better to not have the guy across from you in the Octagon on a roid rage.
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