The California State Athletic Commission is a gong show right now. Financial issues have led to the removal of executive director George Dodd and the CSAC is basically in complete disarray. This was never more evident than at last month's Strikeforce: Rousey vs. Kaufman event in San Diego. FightOpinion's Zach Arnold has covered the entire CSAC debacle in remarkable detail and this case is no different.
Basically here's the deal - Ronda Rousey and Sarah Kaufman were the only fighters on the card that were drug tested. Why? Because it was "random", and they were the ones picked. Okay. Anyway, this all comes down to an apparently inept Consumer Affairs employee named Kathi Burns who has tried to take control of handling testing at events. Mr. Arnold will tell you why this is ridiculous:
An important factor that should be noted in this whole story is that Burns has no experience in combat sports and is not a fan of combat sports, either. She simply has been a lifer at Consumer Affairs in Sacramento, floating around from place to place.
When it came time to drug test the fighters, only Rousey and Kaufman were drug tested for PEDs. It turns out that Burns, who allegedly has no experience doing drug testing, reportedly handled the testing process herself. What makes this so bizarre is that there were inspectors at the show who had worked or are working for the state's Corrections department. If there is anyone who understands the chain of custody issues regarding drug testing, it's individuals who work for Corrections. And, yet, Burns herself is the one who handled the drug testing.
The UCLA drug lab had issues with the labeling of the samples, which had to be fixed before they were tested. They eventually did do that, and they tests came back negative, but this whole thing is basically a major chain of custody issue and even if the samples did test positive, there'd be no real way to uphold a suspension.
There's a lot more to it and I highly suggest you read the rest of the article for clarification as well as the rest of his CSAC pieces to get a greater understanding of the whole sad situation. But this is not a good sign at all for the commission.