UFC 189 Drug Test Results All Clean, Jose Aldo’s Troublesome Test Collection Detailed

Every fighter on the UFC 189: Mendes vs. McGregor fight card on July 11 drug tested on fight night. Seven fighters were also tested out-of-compeition. All test results came back clean, although not without come controversy swirling around a Jose Aldo test collection prior to him dropping off the card.

The Nevada Athletic Commission on Monday released the drug test results for all of the UFC 189 fighters, which showed clean results across the board.

Of the athletes that competed at the MGM Grand Garden Arena, Chad Mendes, Conor McGregor, Robbie Lawler, Rory MacDonald, Jeremy Stephens, and Dennis Bermudez were all tested in the days and weeks prior to fight night. They’re results were also negative.

UFC featherweight champion Jose Aldo was also drug tested in an out-of-competition collection administered in early June, well before he had to withdraw from the fight due to a rib injury. His results were also clean, but it was he collection process itself that raised eyebrows in relation to Aldo’s test.

RELATED > Jose Aldo’s Controversial Out-of-Competition Drug Test Comes Back Clean

The Nevada Athletic Commission enlisted the services of Drug Free Sports, an American company, to send an agent to Brazil to collect a urine sample from Aldo. Despite having a work visa that allows him to perform his duties in Brazil, and DFS also enlisting the assistance of a local drug collection officer to assist him, DFS’s Ben Mosier was delayed for two days in his effort to collect a sample, and even then, the Brazilian MMA Athletic Commission (CABMMA) took over.

On June 10, neither Mosier nor Aldo’s coach, Andre Pederneiras, were able to locate Aldo and get him to the gym to collect the sample, according to a DFS recap of the bizarre collection attempt.

Aldo gave a sample the next day, but an off-duty Brazilian federal police officer who was training at the gym interfered, delaying the process until a representative from CABMMA arrived. Due to a loss of control of the sample because of the detention, Aldo’s collected sample was thrown out, according to the DFS statement.

The officer detained Mosier, the DFS collector, until immigration officials arrived, reviewed his paperwork, and eventually cleared him to resume his duties, but not until the following day, June 12.

Arriving late on June 12, Aldo gave a sample, which he spilled, and then gave another about half an hour later, which CABMMA officials, not the DFS collector or his Brazilian associate, took control of, packaged, and processed for delivery to a lab in the United States.

It’s also interesting that DFS’s recap of the collection included a note that the drug collection officer that CABMMA used on June 12 brought a magazine that he had Aldo autograph and also took a picture with Aldo before leaving the gym.

The whole process certainly sounds suspicious, although Aldo eventually withdrew from the fight due to injury. Accusations, of course, have followed.

RELATED > VIDEO: Wanderlei Silva Goes Off on Dana White’s Handling of Jose Aldo Injury

UFC president Dana White has publicly stated that the UFC is trying to arrange for a rescheduled fight between Aldo and McGregor in December in Dallas. If it happens, Aldo’s coach, Pederneiras, wants to quiet the critics. He recently told Brazilian outlet Combate, “I again ask the UFC, Dana White, and Lorenzo Fertitta to drug test Aldo and McGregor for three months, at least three times a week, blood and urine. I will pay all the extra costs that it might bring.”

With the UFC’s new strict drug testing procedures now in place with the United States Anti-Doping Agency in charge, you can rest assured, if Aldo vs. McGregor does happen, there will be an abundance of testing going on.