UFC's New PED policy | Long Island MMA

     The UFC (Ultimate Fighting Championship) has recently announced that they will be spear heading reform of drug testing for all fighters on every card. Yes that is right, the UFC would like to have every single combatant on every card moving forward to be tested for PED (performance enhancing drugs). They are currently working with all athletic commissions to sanction their events in order to accomplish what they have dubbed the “drug testing call to action”. The UFC has certainly taken up the call to action, they have also stated that in respect to the athletic commissions they will cover any and all costs associated with the new policy that may fall outside of the state or federal budgets for such issues.

 
   In doing so the UFC has taken nearly the full responsibility of fighting PED’s on themselves as an organization. This type of oversight will most certainly be heavy on the UFC’s wallet seeing as there are a total of five hundred and eighty five fighters under contract with the UFC. Each fighter will be tested by the commission when they are to compete. While the UFC has agreed to supplement any state or federal budget shortcomings in order to accomplish this goal they have taken their commitment a step further. Other than the supplementation of state PED testing the UFC will also be randomly testing every single one of their contracted athletes outside of competition. Keeping in mind that this movement will not replace any of the testing that is currently taking place, it will simply be added on. These additions could possibly amount to several millions of dollars, so it is very clear that the UFC means business.

    One might wonder “just because testing has increased doesn’t mean anything will be fixed, what is the penalty”? It is arguable that the current penalties being assigned for those having failed drug tests are simply not enough. A fighter collecting a legitimate purse and only looking at a couple months suspension has no real reason not to use PED because the risk is quite below the reward. However, the thought has been raised by the UFC to instate failure penalties that “could be career threatening” according to UFC President Dana White. A minimum of two years suspension seems to be the goal, however, depending on the severity of the circumstance suspensions may even reach up to four years long. With the threat of possibly career ending suspensions at hand this could be the beginning of the end of the current PED issue.