Former UFC Champion Adds to Growing Criticism of USADA's MMA Testing
When the UFC partnered with the United States Anti-Doping Agency in 2015 following a rash of high-profile failed tests, the move was widely praised by fighters in the promotion. Fast forward three years, though, and the shine is starting to come off.
The latest to join a chorus of critics is former heavyweight champion Junior dos Santos. Last year, the Brazilian was suddenly pulled from a scheduled bout at UFC 215 due to a drug test that was flagged for the diuretic hydrochlorothiazide. Though USADA would ultimately rule that the issue stemmed from a tainted supplement and give Dos Santos a relatively light six-month suspension being pulled from UFC 215, waiting for USADA's ruling and then waiting for the UFC to book him again ultimately translated to more than a year on the shelf.
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That doesn't sit well with the 34-year-old. He discussed as much, and how he thinks the issue should have been handled, in an interview with MMA Junkie's Fernanda Prates on Tuesday.
"I thought, with USADA's experience and their understanding, that they would be able to say what was a contamination and what wasn't," he said. "Not just because of the substance, but the amount, as well. But that's not how it happened."
Though there is no question that some athletes knowingly use performance-enhancing drugs, tainted supplements are a very real problem. Because supplements are not as stringently monitored as traditional drugs by government agencies like the FDA, issues with unlisted ingredients and lax cleanliness standards during production can result in potentially harmful substances lining otherwise innocuous products. This has popped up many times over the years with everything from creatine to sleeping pills.
Dos Santos, for his part, knows that this is a tricky issue and USADA has limited options available. What sticks out to him as a partial remedy is to not be so swift to punish competitors before they have an opportunity to plead their case.
"I think in situations like these, they shouldn't take the fighters off fights," he said. "They should keep the fighter in the fight, and in case culpability was proven, then they could penalize them in an even harsher way. I know it sounds scary, but what's happening is that we're getting punished before we're even judged."
Though Dos Santos was largely diplomatic and acknowledged that PED use in MMA is a problem that needs to be addressed, he joins what has been a growing stable of former champions who have an issue with USADA in particular.
Former heavyweight champion Josh Barnett walked away from the UFC last week following a lengthy battle with USADA, which saw him shelved for 18 months before being given no real punishment. Like Dos Santos, Barnett's issue stemmed from a tainted supplement which his team identified, but in his case, the back-and-forth dragged on long enough for him to miss out on multiple fights and required him to pay out-of-pocket for lawyer fees and the tests on his supplements.
That series of events made him leery of USADA to the point where he requested his UFC release and left him questioning whether he was being made an example.
In addition to Barnett, former light heavyweight champion Lyoto Machida recently left the UFC and signed with rival promotion Bellator MMA following a questionable dust-up with USADA. In his case, he admitted to taking a banned substance in 7-keto-DHEA. Despite the fact that Machida willingly disclosed his use of it and though the WADA believes that DHEA has no performance-enhancing effects on male athletes (as discussed by Bloody Elbow's Iain Kidd), he was given a whopping two-year ban which he eventually returned from in October 2017.
Though Machida did not specifically cite USADA or the suspension as the catalyst for his departure, it's hard to ignore the pattern.
With his own troubles now behind him, Dos Santos is set to finally return to the cage in July at UFC Fight Night 133 opposite Blagoy Ivanov. The former World Series of Fighting champion is a tough draw for anyone and is a particularly tough draw for someone that will be rusty after a yearlong roller coaster ride.
That fact isn't lost on JDS, but all he can do is try and move forward.
"I'm not overlooking Blagoy, he was a champion in another organization, but honestly I didn't even take anything about him into consideration," he said. "The only things I took into consideration were the ones about myself...The most important thing is getting the car moving. Making things happen for me again and leave all this negative stuff in the past."
That will be easier said than done, but a win on July 14 would be a great way to return to positivity.
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