Hefty price tag to limit efforts, but UFC remains committed to battling PED use

With a $45,000 price tag per fight, the UFC’s Lorenzo Fertitta says the promotion would go out of business if it implemented year-round “enhanced” drug testing.

But the executive said there are still measures that can be taken to stamp out performance-enhancing drug use in the UFC, even as the process of developing a workable solution to the problem evolves from day to day.

“We’re developing this as we go along, and it’s not something where we’re going to have all the answers right away on this,” Fertitta told MMAjunkie. “The sport has made tremendous strides over the last 12 to 24 months, as far as drug testing, and I’ll argue beyond any other sport – I don’t know any other sports that are doing enhanced drug testing and have the commitment that we’re giving.”

Right now, that commitment means footing the bill when state athletic commissions can’t afford to pay for enhanced testing. So far, the promotion has done so twice, writing checks for a UFC 168 heavyweight bout between Travis Browne and Josh Barnett and this past Saturday’s UFC 172 headliner, Jon Jones vs. Glover Teixeira. A third fight will be bankrolled for a UFC 173 fight between Robbie Lawler and Jake Ellenberger.

The UFC 168 and UFC 173 bouts fall under the jurisdiction of the Nevada State Athletic Commission, which has also conducted enhanced testing for major boxing bouts. The regulatory body previously employed out-of-competition testing, but athletes typically received only one additional test prior to the standard fight-night test for PEDs and drugs of abuse.

The enhanced tests, meanwhile, are filtered through a WADA-accredited lab in Salt Lake City and involve a collector visiting the fighters on multiple occasions during camp to administer blood and urine tests, which are then screened for a larger variety of PEDs and drugs of abuse. The lab employs tests for human-growth hormone and, according to an ESPN story, utilizes carbon isotope ratio testing to detect synthetic testosterone.

Following UFC 172, which was overseen by the Maryland State Athletic Commission, Jones said he gave blood and urine on four occasions to a tester.

The costs of the enhanced program aren’t cheap, nor is flying a testing professional around the country on a random basis. At the press conference for UFC 172, UFC President Dana White told MMAjunkie the program’s hefty bill could limit future enhanced tests to major fights. He added that costs could be lowered by soliciting bids from testing companies, but colorfully joked the UFC “got f–ked” in shelling out $45,000.

“I’ll be honest, when they told me $45,000, I thought, like, they misspoke,” Fertitta said.

Fertitta agrees the current cost of the program will curtail the frequency of enhanced testing, though he couldn’t say by how much. He said the UFC doesn’t yet have a target for how much enhanced testing it would like to see or could potentially support, but added that for now, the promotion will keep a commitment to support athletic commissions when such testing is requested.

“We said we would do it, and we’re going to do it,” he said. “Now we’re going to continue to work with them to see if there’s maybe a way to get a deal where we’re doing so many of them that the cost will come down or becomes a little bit more cost-effective.”

NSAC chair Francisco Aguilar this week told ESPN that enhanced testing will be the norm for big fights in the future.

“I think we’re going to have to get smart about how we deal with it,” Fertitta said. “Obviously, for some of the bigger fights, you’re going to do the enhanced drug testing no matter what it costs. I think for some of the other fights, we’re going to have to be smart.

“Maybe, I’m just throwing this out, maybe it’s kind of half an enhanced drug test. I don’t know. But we need to come to some resolution that accomplishes our goal of ridding the sport of performance-enhancing drugs and at the same time being somewhat reasonable from a cost standpoint. We may have to go to some states and get some additional funding, but this is all very new.”

The ultimate goal of course, would be that state athletic commissions have enough money to support more frequent enhanced testing. Right now, if one fight costs $45,000, that represents nearly 10 percent of the NSAC’s budget, according to ESPN.

But as to how additional funding can be found, such as through event tax hikes or other fees, Fertitta isn’t sure.

“There’s really no other source to pull from,” he said. “The budgetary constraints that these states have just trying to fund education, I don’t think we’re going to be on the list for drug testing in MMA or boxing.

“Ultimately, it’s going to fall on the shoulders of the promoters as it is today. So the question becomes, all the taxes that are paid, and I’m sure it may vary state by state, but in Nevada, all the taxes that are paid to the commission don’t necessarily go to the commission. They go to the general fund of the state, so there’s no allocation back to the commission even though the commission generates a substantial amount of revenue.

“So the longer term items we’re going to have to work through and try to figure out, if there’s a way to maintain those taxes that are paid, at least to help maintain the sport and run the sport, but that’s down the road. For now, we’re paying for it.”

Fertitta hopes the UFC isn’t the only one who steps up to the plate, but he isn’t very optimistic that other MMA promoters are doing much to stamp out PED use. Then again, the majority of them have a fraction of the financial resources available to them.

“Everything seems to be geared toward us, which is fine, we’re the leader in the industry,” he said. “We’ll take the leadership role, and we’re going to do whatever we can to rid the sport of these issues.”

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