We’re just one month into 2016 and already the results of the partnership between the UFC and the United States Anti-Doping Agency is well underway. With more athletes tested in January than in the entire fourth quarter of 2015, it’s very much clear that the USADA era is upon us.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YACpZjjiywo
Announced in June of last year, the UFC-USADA partnership started to move into action about a month later in July. It’s this January, however, that the testing program supposedly went into full effect.
Indeed, the numbers seem to back up that suggestion.
As of January 27th, the USADA database of athlete testing history shows that in 2016, 132 fighters have been tested, with 170 total tests carried out. In comparison, the site shows 2015’s fourth quarter as having 131 members of the roster tested, with 272 total tests conducted.
It should be noted that the total number of tests correlates to the actual amount of tests carried out on an athlete, and therefore is not a representation of how many visits said athlete has had. For example, in the entirety of 2015, UFC Featherweight champion Conor McGregor is shown to have been tested 8 times. This means he has had either blood or urine taken from him eight times, not the amount of times he has had a representative of USADA at his door.
So far in the new world of enhanced drug testing, there have been two main incidents of note.
Firstly, was Mirko ‘Cro Cop’ Filipović.
Currently the only listing under USADA’s blacklist of failed test subjects, Cro Cop was suspended in November 2015, after he announced his retirement, and his recent taking of Human Growth Hormone.
Citing a desire to get through injury, Cro Cop made a statement via his website saying “Growth hormones are on the list of banned substances. I knew that already. But there was no other way to save my shoulder–at least in my mind–without combining the blood plasma with growth hormones. Unfortunately it turns out the only cure was a good break and rest. But a desperate man will try anything.
“After 6 days of growth hormone and plasma injections,” Cro Cop said. “The USADA came to test me. I gave them my blood sample and urine samples and immediately told the UFC about the test. I also said that I had been taking blood plasma and growth hormone since nothing else was working.”
Interestingly, in the same statement Filipović stated “The test results are not even finished, and I’m not even sure if they are going to find anything because I used the treatment for a few days to recover my shoulder and fight, that’s it. Now they have given me some kind of suspension because I told them myself that I have been getting the treatment.”
When the results did in fact come through, it turned out that the Croatian was right. The tests actually came back negative for HGH, but due to Filipović’s admission to the UFC and USADA, a two year suspension was administered.
Yet considering Cro Cop’s instant retirement followed his violation, it would be fair to say the biggest casualty, so far, appears to have been Middleweight Yoel Romero. Coming off a victory over Ronaldo ‘Jacare’ Souza at UFC 194, Romero looked to be in line for a shot at the Middleweight champion Luke Rockhold’s title. Instead, on January 12, the UFC released a statement announcing that USADA had informed them of the Cuban’s failing an out of competition drug test for an (as of yet) unknown substance.
With MMA’s chequered past in regards to steroids, it’s always a positive thing to see increased and improved testing in the sport. With the online database, it’s also interesting to see who in the sport is being examined.
In January alone, Anthony ‘Rumble’ Johnson and UFC Lightweight champion Rafael Dos Anjos have both had four samples taken. UFC Welterweight champion Robbie Lawler is on three.
Intriguingly Anderson Silva, who failed a test pre-USADA early last year (and by doing so essentially caused the UFC to begin looking into increased drug testing), has had two samples taken ahead of his February 27 bout with Michael Bisping.
Perhaps in an attempt to appear unbiased… Roy Nelson has had one as well.
That’s not to say the USADA era is all low points. Several fighters have been having fun with the increased testing, with many taking to social media to show their blood being drawn (like Conor McGregor) or to complain about the early rises that the eager sample takers require (like Miesha Tate and Phil ‘CM Punk’ Brooks).
A side note worthy of attention, is that the USADA online database appears to be incomplete, as Tate, Brooks, and McGregor are all absent from 2016s current available data.
With the USADA era just beginning, it’ll be interesting to see how fighters respond. Already there have been claims of shrunken physiques, and weakened performances, but hopefully, be it early days yet, hopefully we’ve seen the start of a corner turn in the UFC when it comes to performance enhancing drugs.
To examine the UFC rosters testing history, and the recipients of one or more USADA visits, look at the USADA database here.
