Dana White and UFC Cannot Abandon Commissions for Better Drug Testing

thank you

The UFC is just one of many pro sports organization that deals with P.E.D. It wouldn’t be a bad idea to step up the accountability of the State athletic commissions, rather then leave enforcement of laws to the individual organizations.

just some unsolicited edit advice:

That may sound strange to those who can plainly observing how utterly anemic the current system is,

That may sound strange to those observing the utterly anemic system currently in place

You as well as the article seem to assume the UFC wants more stringent testing. I fail to see why they would want that? The UFC has an interest in an outward perception of the sport as clean. As it stands, it has that to the necessary degree. Hardcore MMA-sites may be calling it into question but that’s of little interest to them. Especially considering that the upside of steroid-use is great for the UFC. Fighters heal faster, potentially perform on a more spectacular level, cut more weight and look like action-figures for all of it. Why on earth would they do anything to change that? If it wasn’t for PR-reasons, Dana White would deliver the steroids to everybodys doorstep.

If I was a fighter and was not abusing PED’s I’d get a blood test done every three months. Why not? If you are really playing by the rules prove it.

You’re not going to die at 40 unless you abuse them like a retard. Which is all the more reason it should be legal – those retards would have doctors advising them, instead of just sticking random needles up their asses.

when roided out dudes start punching each other in the face with UFC gloves, people will die, and MMA will too.

I think that’s the argument and I’d agree. To say that a Government body is doing the bare minimum and isn’t catching 90% of the problem shows that said agency is incompetent.

Additional testing wouldn’t be running away from regulation. Literally. More self-imposed regulation would be embracing the drug testing process as a whole. The UFC already does their own testing if there isn’t an athletic commission. The NFL tests players in the off-season. With all the international shows, it’s possible a UFC fighter could go years without even fighting in the US.

Very poor example, OSHA standards are minimum standards. To meet OSHA safety standards it is understood that you are doing the absolute minimum legally allowable to keep your workers safe, when a company says they are safe because they meet all OSHA regulations then we normally take that as a sign of a real issue with them. The expectation is that companies will be well above what OSHA safety and health standards are set at. The entire system was set up with the expectation that it would monitor for the worst and that companies would go beyond the regulations (and good companies do).

The regulations are also set to force companies to regulate themselves on this not to have OSHA do it. If I go onto a site and the violation appears to be worker misconduct then the citation still goes to the company for not training and policing their workers actions. The comparison in this situation would be if the state athletic commissions said what was not to be alowed but told the promoters they were responsible for policing their own events and doing their own drug test and if they saw something wrong they would fine the promotion. Athletic commissions aren’t forcing promotions to hire their own referees and judges and then fining the company when the refs or judges make bad calls nor are they telling promotions to do their own drug testing and then fining the promotion when a fighter beats a drug test. There was never any expectation when state athletic commissions were set up for individual promotions to self regulate and exceed the requirements but that is exactly how OSHA was set up to work (many companies will never see an OSHA compliance officer, OSHA doesn’t go there unless they think there is some kind of problem to start with).

Creating your own safety programs is a very big part of OSHA regulations. It is directly written that companies will create and implement several specific safety progams and that they must train workers and insure their workers comply with those programs. A comparison for this would be as if a state athletic commission told a promotion to write their own drug testing policy and start their own drug testing program. That is exactly the opposite of what is actually expected by athletic commissions. OSHA requires self regulation because OSHA won’t be on site to do it themselves(we just do inspections when there may be a problem), state athletic commissions were specifically designed to be on site and regulate events in person. Heck in sports self regulation creates legitimacy issues, athletic commissions were created to be an outside control.

Just a note: If you ever see any product that says “OSHA approved” then they are full of shit. OSHA never approves anything we just set guidelines. It falls on the employer to insure things they buy and use meet regulations. If a company buys a shitty ladder and allows it to be used then the company would get the citation not the ladder manufacturer.

I read somewhere the UFC already does test somewhere before a fight. That makes sense to me if they are screening their athletes say a month before the fight. They’ll keep it inofficial and if anything comes up, they’ll tell the athlete to get the F off the juice right now so he won’t be caught by the officials. If you wanna see that as assistance (fighter can basically take an advance test to see if his “medication” will show up) or as additional safety against steroids is up to perspective, I guess.

Anything Zuffa does has evil intentions didn’t you know? FreeMasonIlluminatiKnightsTemplarClubofRomeCFR tin hats for everyone

So feel free to recant that

But I agree with the point on the manpower/cost of olympic testing. I would be in favor of Olympic testing for main events. The downside is if someone is caught before the event then the title fight is off.

If there were a way to reasonably convince people a random blood testing policy was a compliment to the athletic commissions’ scheduled urine-testing policy, you might have something.

I just think the suspicion about the fight game is so much higher than in other sports that policing the ranks from a credible source is critical.

But the open “we’re regulated by the government” talking point was patented by Dana White.

And if the commissions don’t have the budget to do proper testing, why do so few (including Nevada who outright denies it) say they do? And if they don’t, why doesn’t the UFC say they do? Because, again, the UFC has invested in hyping the legitimacy of athletic commissions and their proximity to them.

I think my main concern holds: Coker and White clearly are feverish about protecting the legitimacy of athletic commissions and the work they do. Provided they could construct some arrangement where the enforcement ability is enhanced without alienating or undermining the commissions, that’d be ideal.

But I still hold on to this central idea: the UFC has worked diligently to tell everyone the commissions are what’s required to keep the sport safe, to keep it properly regulated, to be authentic and trusted. Whatever actions they take, that cannot change.

You are required to self regulate though your own efforts though. Athletic commissions are specifically set up to take regulation out of the hands of promotions and do external regulation. Don’t confuse the regulation with the person enforcing it, athletic commissions aren’t a standard to be met they are the people who show up at events and run the show to make sure the competition is fair.

Or I could be deeply cynical.

:D
Avoiding CSAC only correlates to what a mess CSAC historically has been. Where else has there been a lot of positive test that the UFC avoids?

The claim that it isn’t politically viable because the commissions would be forced under a microscope is preposterous. With state governments as strapped as they are, the idea that athletic commissions are going to turn down tax money from MMA shows is nonsense.

Huh???? Commissions being forced under a microscope has nothing to do with tax money it’s an issue of sport credibility. Combat sports are regulated from the outside due to the history of corruption in that industry(athletic commissions main job is still boxing), they are supposed to be outside the promotion and without bias. As you have pointed out (whether it was your intention or not) is that the UFC self regulating MMA seriously damages the credibility of the organization and the sport(and the UFC understands that). It’s in the UFC’s best interest if steroids don’t become a public problem for them, that is why an unbiased outside organization doing the regulation is so preferable That outside organization has to be credible in their own right too. This isn’t just about drug testing (which is only a small part of what athletic commissions actually do)this is about credibility of the sport as a legitimate sport.

If the UFC really wanted a stronger drug testing environment, they could implement it themselves. I don’t buy the idea that this would drive some sort of wedge between the organization and it’s government regulators, as this sort of thing—i.e. higher standards self-implemented by industry leaders—that occurs in any number of industries.