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| Don't they do drug testing before every fight already? |
To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 20 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. Not always or frequently it would seem
Fighters from neither Houston’s UFC 69 event nor last weekend’s UFC 70 event in England underwent drug testing following their bouts, according to Steve Sievert of the Houston Chronicle.
According to Sievert, officials from the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation stated that the drug testing was the responsibility of the “sanctioning body” of UFC 69, which in this case, was none other than the UFC.
The UFC simply chose not to test anyone.
Sievert has some feedback from Marc Ratner, the UFC’s vice president of regulatory affairs, regarding the matter. Unfortunately, he doesn’t offer much in the way of an explanation, other than saying the UFC would have had no authority to discipline the fighters even if they did test positive for performance-enhancing or recreational drugs.
Add this latest fiasco to growing list of grievances regarding the TDLR and its first-ever UFC event in the state of Texas. Earlier this month, UFCjunkie.com contacted the commission to get a list of salaries from the fighters at the April 7 event. This information is readily available from other state commissions and considered a matter of public record.
However, with the Texas commission, our numerous phone calls and email messages were ignored. No explanation was given, and no information was sent. I later learned that other media outlets were told that the commission wouldn’t release the information until the state’s attorney general decided whether or not the figures could stay private. Of course, UFCjunkie.com never got an answer either way.
Sievert also asked Ratner about testing for UFC 70, which took place in Manchester, England. Ratner said they simply had no legal means to do it.
However, just a few days before the UFC 70 event, UFC president Dana White said that the organization would administer the drug tests — and that Ratner, the former head of the Nevada State Athletic Commission, would be in charge of the process. White made the comments during a conference call to reporters a few days before the event.
Said White:
"[Each drug test] will be a random drug test, and actually, what we are doing for this is Marc Ratner will be overseeing and has flown over a lot of inspectors, judges and referees. As far as safety goes, we always go overboard. Ratner is overseeing the whole thing"
The tests, of course, never happened.
In fact, England was apparently so ill-prepared for the event that the UFC reportedly had to fly over two U.S. inspectors, three judges and a doctor who consulted with local officials on the night of the event.
England’s Boxing Board of Control, after all, does not regulate MMA.
As Sievert stated:
The UFC has pushed a lot of right buttons in helping to legitimize mixed martial arts and gain a level of respect for the sport’s fighters that was unthinkable just a few years ago. However, the promotion needs to do better with the drug-testing issue before it does more damage to the sport.
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