Nevada Commissioners Discuss Stiffer Penalties for MMA Drug-Test Failures

MMA fighters—and maybe even promotions—could soon be on the hook for big punishments if they fail drug tests. 

That's the key suggestion that emerged from a day-long information-gathering session held by the Nevada State Athletic Commission, which focused on curbing the use of performance-enhancing drugs in MMA, according to a report from Shaun Al-Shatti of MMAFighting.com. 

Some of the ideas bandied about by NSAC commissioners included longer drug suspensions, some potentially lasting as long as four years depending on the nature of the offense. Current suspension lengths range from nine months to one year.

When a fighter tests positive for a banned substance, a win could be changed to a loss, instead of a no-contest, according to an idea broached by commissioner Anthony Marnell.

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Running theme over the last few hours is that most athletes who have cheated *knew* they were cheating. Zero tolerance for feigned ignorance

— Shaheen Al-Shatti (@shaunalshatti) March 27, 2015"

Marnell also suggested that promotions such as the UFC also should bear some accountability for fighters who fail drug tests while under contract, via Al-Shatti: 

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There's really no ramifications other than the [fighter] suspension. It's peanuts that gets made and nobody's really incentivized other than the fighters to stop it. Maybe [promotions] would disagree with me on that, and I look forward to that testimony, but do you think we are going far enough up the chain for the ramifications of this? Is it solely the athlete's responsibility?

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The commission also mulled over the definitions of in-competition and out-of-competition testing. This issue gained major scrutiny earlier this year when it was announced that UFC light heavyweight champ Jon Jones had tested positive for cocaine metabolites prior to his bout with Daniel Cormier at UFC 182 but was not suspended because cocaine is banned during out-of-competition testing.

NSAC made no official decisions during the meeting, which included testimony from several PED and drug-testing experts. The commission will reconvene in April and is expected to discuss the issue further at that time.