Anderson Silva
Since out-of-competition drug testing ramped up in December 2013, a high percentage of UFC fighters have been caught using banned substances.
Although early tests didn’t produce failures, a slew of positives has again brought focus to a drug problem in the sport.
Of 16 UFC fighters known to have been subject to enhanced testing, five – or 31 percent – have been flagged for performance-enhancers or drugs of abuse.
All but one of the fighters were caught prior to competing in UFC events regulated by the Nevada State Athletic Commission, which in December 2013 contracted with the Sports Medicine Research & Testing Laboratory, a WADA-approved facility.
The NSAC began working with the SMRTL after boxing promoter Bob Arum paid to test a fight between Timothy Bradley and Juan Manuel Marquez in October 2013. Beginning in May 2008, the commission tested athletes out-of-competition, in particular those who’d previously tested positive for banned substances, but it did not conduct multiple tests or utilize tests – such as CIR (carbon isotope ratio) – to detect synthetic testosterone.
Here’s a look at what’s happened since testing efforts ramped up:
UFC 168: Heavyweight Josh Barnett, a three-time PED offender, passes the program along with opponent Travis Browne.
- In February 2014, Vitor Belfort, a PED offender in 2006, fails a test when he is found with an elevated level of testosterone (at the time, he was a public user of testosterone-replacement therapy, which was later banned by the NSAC.)
- In March 2014, random tests of Rousimar Palhares and Cristiane Justino – who previously tested positive for banned substances – come back negative.
- UFC 172: Light heavyweight champ Jon Jones and Glover Teixeira pass an out-of-competition program in connection with their headliner.
- UFC 173: Robbie Lawler and Jake Ellenberger pass the SMRTL program.
- UFC 174: Flyweight title challenger Ali Bagautinov fails a random drug test conducted by Cita Health, which finds erythropoietin (EPO) prior to his title fight with champ Demetrious Johnson. The British Columbia Athletic Commission, which oversaw the event, did not receive the results until after the fight.
- UFC 175: Chael Sonnen, who previously was suspended for an elevated testosterone-to-epitestosterone ratio, fails two out-of-competition tests and is found with five different banned substances in his system. Wanderlei Silva, meanwhile, evades a drug test and is scratched from the event. He later receives a lifetime ban from the NSAC after admitting to using a banned diuretic.
- UFC 181: Despite his failure in early 2014, Belfort receives a conditional license later in the year for a title fight against middleweight champ Chris Weidman. The NSAC initially passes off testing to the California State Athletic Commission when the fight is moved to next month’s UFC 184 lineup, but then randomly tests Belfort on three separate occasions. He passes.
- UFC 182: The SMRTL finds cocaine metabolites in Jones’ urine prior to his headlining fight with Daniel Cormier, who was also tested by the SMRTL. Jones’ test results are not released prior to the fight, the NSAC said, because cocaine metabolites are not banned out-of-competition.
- UFC 183: Headliner Anderson Silva fails the latest out-of-competition test, administered by the SMRTL, due to multiple steroids.
Although there exists no definitive record of those MMA athletes who’ve been tested out-of-competition, a full list of fighters caught using PEDs can be found at CagePotato.com.
Increased drug testing efforts are catching more of them than ever. Just two months after the UFC announced it was abandoning an out-of-competition drug testing program, it appears one is needed more than ever to clean up the sport.
For more on the UFC’s upcoming schedule, check out the UFC Rumors section of the site.
(UPDATED on 2/4/15 at 4:45 p.m. ET. Although he was tested out of competition, Nick Diaz’s failed drug test due to marijuana was considered in-competition. The correct percentage of failed out-of-competition tests is 31, not 38.)
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