Anderson Silva. AP FILE PHOTO
MANILA, Philippines—The Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) on Thursday (Manila time) announced that it would change its overall drug-testing programs to enforce harsher sanctions for offenders.
According to Bleacher Report, UFC CEO Lorenzo Fertita, President Dana White and counsel Lawrence Epstein announced their plans to conduct an overall sweep of their drug-testing program at the Red Rock Casino Resort in Las Vegas.
UFC’s changes would take effect on July 1 (July 2 in Manila).
Recent scandals involving all-time greats Anderson Silva and Jon Jones, Nick Diaz and Hector Lombard prompted UFC to change their drug-testing policies.
Bleacher Report said Fertita began the press conference detailing UFC’s history of drug regulation, saying that the promotion has always embraced government regulation.
White followed it up with Jones’ failed out-of-competition test for cocaine metabolites and Silva’s multiple test failures for performance-enhancing drugs (PEDs) and benzodiazepines.
Fertita then discussed UFC’s vision for the future of drug-testing which arose after examining statistics for out-of-competition drug tests.
For 2013 until 2014, five fighters out of 19 failed out-of-competition tests.
“That is an alarming statistic,” Fertitia said.
UFC’s CEO continued that it would be running for the eradication of PEDs from the sport just as it ran toward regulation over a decade ago.
He added that his promotion would advocate for all athletic commissions to conduct out-of-competition tests for all their main event fighters for title and non-title fights.
The UFC will pay for all the additional tests, Bleacher Report said.
Also, the UFC will begin testing every fighter in its roster randomly and out of competition. The promotion will also dole out harsher punishments for first-time offenders with Fertita saying that current sanctions do not deter offenders from doing it again.
The World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada) doles out a four-year ban for first time offenders which they implemented at the start of the new year–a sanction that Fertita supports.
Wada’s previous sanction was only a two-tear ban.
Fertita is aware that the new move would bring in some hurdles as he attempts to transition from the drug-infused atmosphere to a cleaner environment for the sport.
“Honestly, it’s going to get worse before it gets better,” he said. “There have to be harsher penalties to rid this sport of PED usage.”
“If you are using PEDs, you will be caught.”
A third-party will handle UFC’s drug-tests.
“We will partner with an international, leading anti-doping agency,” Fertitta said. “That agency will handle all of the testing. They won’t even tell us who they’re testing or why. They will handle it.”
Fertita, though, did not disclose the party.
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