With all the fighters who have been busted recently for cheating via P.E.D.’s, it is not lost on UFC president Dana White that cheating by enhancing your body via performance enhancing drugs (P.E.D’s) is damaging the face of MMA, as it is with any sport that have athletes that use these methods to gain an edge on their opponents. 

Many have said, to properly address the issue, the UFC needs to implement random testing for all of their close to 400 fighters they have under contract. However, Dana White says that kind of random testing just won’t happen. Although he does agree that there needs to be solution to the problem and vow’s to find a solution..

Speaking recently at a press conference, Dana White spoke about the issue:

“I know this is a very touchy subject and everybody has different opinions on it, but I actually think that it’s great that technology has this thing now where guys have made mistakes, they messed up, they used steroids when they were younger, and all this other stuff, that this testosterone replacement therapy can actually help people who need it. Then you get into a situation now where as in everything, you get guys who are out there doing it when they don’t need to do it, and they’re doing it to enhance their performance and it pisses me off. It really, really pisses me off.”

“There’s a lot of people that like to talk (expletive) about us. We’ve done a lot of great things in the last 11 years with this sport. From building to what it is today, guys making (expletive) loads of money, health insurance for all the fighters, getting on Fox, we’ve done thing people said we would never ever (expletive) do. We’ve accomplished all these things. Whether it’s fighter safety or whatever it is, we always do the right thing. We come out with what I think is the best way to handle it, and believe me when I tell you we are going to (expletive) come down on this thing. We are gonna do it. Is it me running around and testing 375 fighters all over the world? No. You guys can talk all the (expletive) you want about that, it’s not going to happen, but we will figure something out. Maybe it’s WADA (World Anti-Doping Agency).” 

“We don’t want anybody doing this stuff. We don’t want anyone using banned substances or drugs or anything else. It destroys everything. Not only questions about the credibility of the sport and everything else, but it destroys big fights. It hurts everybody. I like to give guys… with my fighters and everybody with people I meet, I’ve had situations with lots of people, it’s how you (expletive) handle yourself as a man, in life, in business, in everything else. If you sit down and tell me one thing and it’s not true or you do another thing, then (expletive) you. I’m done.”

Hopefully the UFC and the commission’s can figure this out and soon, as there has to be some sort of solution for this, without strict preventative measures set by the commissions and the promotions in MMA, the sport of MMA could be damaged beyond repair, especially at this critical juncture in the sports evolution. 

WADA style testing really is the only way, to eliminate most of the cheaters from MMA, it’ll never eliminate all of them, and really the only thing that holds the UFC and commissions back from full out Olympic style testing is money, not schedules. The UFC likely believe that it’s the commissions responsibility to create these rules and testing procedures, and not the responsibility of the promotion, and they are right. But the UFC can also set up strict consequences for fighters who get caught cheating to supplement the commission’s penalty’s but at the same time not look like they are undermining the commission’s authority. One thing the commission’s needs to do is eliminate urine tests, as they are less than perfect. The best practice would be to implement hair and blood tests, which are more definitive and accurate.  

For the UFC To implement their own stricter testing would undermine the NSAC’s authority. And there within lies a big part of the issue. The UFC very likely and wants it, but have their hands tied and really will only test fighters who just signed contracts. In many ways their hands are tied.

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