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UFC President Dana White’s revealing response on the issue of drug testing in MMA
By Zach Arnold | June 10, 2010
If you haven’t read Brett Okamoto’s piece in The Las Vegas, go read it. Brett does a good job of covering MMA for the newspaper. One of the issues touched upon with the media at the pre-fight press conference was Josh Koscheck asking for Olympic style-drug testing for his upcoming fight against Georges St. Pierre. Both men said that they would agree to that kind of drug testing program.
We already know what Dana White’s long-time stance has been on drug testing in MMA. “The Government tests the fighters” or “leave it to the athletic commissions.” Fine, that’s what I would expect from your average, run-of-the-mill fight promoter to say. (Like Scott Coker.)
Check out what White said on the matter…
White publicly has given his opinion on several occasions that Floyd Mayweather Jr. is wrong in demanding Manny Pacquiao undergo Olympic-style blood tests in their proposed fight.
So, of course, White was a little disgusted when UFC welterweight Josh Koscheck recently said in an interview he would like to implement blood tests for his next fight against Georges St. Pierre, which is expected to happen in December.
Currently, the Nevada State Athletic Commission requires fighters to undergo urine tests, not blood tests.
According to White, what’s good for the commissions is good for him.
“I think that’s what an athletic commission is for,” White said. “The athletic commissions have been around for a long time. When fighters start talking about other guys being drug tested? Shut up. Worry about you.
“It’s been a long time since somebody tested positive for steroids. When we first took over, guys were popping here and there and I said, ‘You have to be a moron to do steroids in this sport.’ It’s just dumb.”
White went on to say that the UFC actually brings in DEA agents to talk to fighters about the consequences of taking steroids.
This response is very revealing on a couple of levels. First, it totally indicates that the issue of doping is more or less a nuisance issue in White’s eyes. It’s something that flares up every now and again, in his eyes, as mostly a headache rather than an issue about morality in sports. This makes for an interesting juxtaposition to how he always goes around calling UFC a sport. OK, so you want to be a sport and not like a pro-wrestling promotion? Encourage better drug testing on every front and be supportive of your fighters who do want better drug testing, whether their reasons are pure or are based on oneupsmanship as Dr. Margaret Goodman noted about Floyd Mayweather.
White’s message of telling his fighters to shut up on the matter may scare a lot of the roster, but it’s not going to scare guys like Koscheck nor should it. It’s going to have to be up to the fighters to push the envelope and make the issue relevant — and they can.
If Josh Koscheck wants to make this an issue and a PR headache for UFC, he certainly can. He would have a motive, after all, with the bad blood between AKA and UFC and with what White has said about Koscheck publicly a couple of weeks ago. So, what would Koscheck have to lose? UFC has already booked him for a title fight. If they canceled his booking after he speaks out and demands better drug testing, it would make the company look terrible and hurt their credibility.
White’s message to Koscheck probably will not work — and that’s a good thing.
If you haven’t already listened to the audio of the Nevada State Athletic Commission’s conference call from Wednesday on the issue of improving drug testing, click here for the audio links and report summary.
As for what I think would happen if Josh Koscheck did continue to push the issue for Olympic-style drug testing for his fight… I think Dana White would stick it to him and say, “OK, you want Olympic-style drug testing? If you’re really serious about it, then you pay for it. It’s coming out of your paycheck if you want it. We won’t pay for it.” At that point, would Koscheck blink or would he do it?
Topics: Media, MMA, UFC, Zach Arnold | 23 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Koschek would get the testing lab as a sponsor or set up Mar Labs.
Zach, the FO FB logo is acting up in Chrome
screen cap:
http://img816.imageshack.us/img816/9007/fopinion.png
Ed. — Hopefully I fixed it now. Thank you for the heads up.
That’s actually a great idea. A drug testing lab could get a great publicity coup if they offered free testing for promotion on what will be one of UFC’s biggest fights in history.
I don’t understand why someone hasn’t jumped up at this publicity opportunity whenever people are talking about the cost of drug tests. A clean supplement company and/or a lab could probably get a lot of publicity out of being the “official” drug tester for mma, or the UFC, or any of the sports leagues.
Not the least bit surprised. He’d rather have dopers than blown fights when a star gets busted. Every sport feels the same way secretly.
Although the idea of having D.A.R.E. classes for MMA fighters is absolutely hilarious. Do their parents get bumper stickers for their mini vans after they pass?
“First, it totally indicates that the issue of doping is more or less a nuisance issue in White’s eyes. It’s something that flares up every now and again, in his eyes, as mostly a headache rather than an issue about morality in sports”
I think what Zach and Mark (post above) said is correct. No one really cares about it that much. I think this is one of the areas where the media can do the most good, by shining light on the topic repeatedly.
I feel the same way about Koscheck’s comments as I do about Mayweather…
They are both baseless allegations, and they should be given no credence.
Accusing or implying that a fighter is doping just because they are very successful is shameful and really only indicates (to me) a lack of confidence by the fighter making the baseless allegations.
Now for the record I hate Dana White and generally do not agree with anything he says, but in this case I dont think he is so wrong. What should he say? There is nothing for him to respond to in regards to Koscheck’s allegation because it is pure speculation and baseless. Should White just add his pure speculation on the matter as well? What good would that do?
You do know about Mosley and BALCO, right?
No one thinks Mayweather started those allegations for Mosley.
As Doctor Goodman said in her article, Floyd obviously did it in the Manny negotiations for a one-upsmanship(sp?)because he knows Manny believes giving his blood is sapping his energy.
However, there should be much good that comes from this. It seems to me drug testing is a boulder flying down a mountain right now, and it’s only gonna keep gaining more steam.
Its completely BULL that mayweather accused pacquiao of doping… I have absolutely no idea why anyone gives it any credence. There isnt a shred of evidence and the only thing anyone can point to is Pacquiao’s success. So why isnt Mayweather accusing every single successful fighter of doping? Its clearly a tactic and has absolutely nothing to do with real founded suspicion.
Mayweather claimed it was his management that proposed the idea…but at that same time Andre Berto (who has the same management of Mayweather) was scheduled to fight Mosley, who HAS used PEDs, and they didnt even mention making mosley get blood testing for that fight. That just proves that it was a negotiation tactic and was not a good faith concern about doping.
I’m still wondering what Zach’s comment has to do with anything I said…
What does that have to do with anything Zach??
I believe his point in bringing up the BALCO lab was they were notorious for coming up with new chemistry for PEDs to pass undetected by what the standards of the time of drug tests were (basically just searching for illegal drugs, amphetamines, opiates and increased testosterone levels.)
If you’ve ever read the book “Game of Shadows” about BALCO and Barry Bonds, they had guys as guinea pigs take a bunch of stuff and they’d give them blood and urine drug tests until they found a PED that passed. Before then baseball players were finding mark doctors or even paying AIDS and cancer patients who were prescribed steroids and HGH for their prescriptions in Bonds’ alleged case. Then when the heat got on, the millionaires went into overtime looking for ways to beat the system. And a lot of those guys weren’t the obvious home run slugger muscleheads like Bonds and McGwire that you’d never suspect were using PEDs. So what proof do you have that Pacman or GSP aren’t using? You should suspect everybody who can afford it.
The problem is, you can’t prove a negative. The steroid truthers will basically claim anyone they don’t like is juicing, and then back up their argument stating that the person is using some special drug that can’t be detected.
If you truly believe that, then I don’t understand why you’d push for more stringent testing anyhow. It’s a huge catch-22.
Look at Overeem…no matter how many tests the guy passes, people will accuse him. Why? He put on weight and looks like an action figure. If he passes a test, people will claim he cycled off the juice or he is using designer drugs that can’t be detected. If so, what can be done about it?
No matter how stringent the testing, they will always accuse people. Hell, Tour De France does some insane testing on their guys and I still hear people accusing Lance Armstrong pretty regularly. It’s an easy way to discredit a guy and it will never go away no matter what the testing is.
Koscheck is using the steroids hype the same way Mayweather did…to get press and to make an excuse for losing before the fight even happens. It’s win/win for him.
One problem I see with your argument is you seem to be giving too much of the benefit of the doubt to people.
People are still accusing Overeem because no one still knows what was tested for in the Missouri testing.
Lance keeps getting accused because people keep linking him to EPO’s, HGH and other PEDs.
And the basis for these accusations is simply that the guys are successful and look big. “he’s too good, he has to be on something” and then claim the testing is insufficient to detect it. Nobody can beat that argument because it’s impossible to disprove it. Tada. Person discredited.
“I didn’t get beat because that person worked harder than me, he’s a cheater! I have no evidence at all, but I just know it! The tests don’t matter because they can’t catch the stuff he’s cheating with!”
The people accusing Overeem just don’t like the guy. So discredit him because you’re baffled that a guy gains 30lbs in 2 years. Nothing he ever does will prove the point…he could go do Olympic blood testing at random and people would just claim he cycled off or he’s using designer drugs.
It’s just an easy way to discredit people you don’t like, or in the case of other athletes, make yourself look better when you’ve been soundly beaten by a better athlete.
That’s because they really are working on ways to get around it. That’s a fact. There’s never going to be a perfect system, but you have to make efforts to adapt to their changes. And right now the system in place is pretty much useless. Way more people get busted for marijuana and painkillers which mean far less to the purity of the sport than PED use. And that’s not because nobody is using.
\”So what proof do you have that Pacman or GSP aren’t using? You should suspect everybody who can afford it.\”
\”One problem I see with your argument is you seem to be giving too much of the benefit of the doubt to people.\”
Both of these are absolutely ludicrous statements and completely prove my point.. Why shouldn\’t they get the benefit of the doubt?? Because they can \”afford\” it? The fact of the matter is, they should get the benefit of the doubt until there is any actual evidence. Please explain to me how the scenario where top athletes are guilty until proven innocent? How would that work? How would a governing body implement that standard?? I am fine if all fighters are blood tested across the board, or in all championship fights, but just choosing the best fighters and basically calling them dopers is not a stance that anyone, especially a governing body, should take.
Now as far as the Mosley thing…it is still completely irrelevant to the discussion. Just because a fighter has gotten away with it, we should give credence to every bullsh*t accusation a trash-talking fighter makes?? Sure, Ok.
Why should athletes be looked upon with a cynical eye? Because too many athletes have been using to be naive about it.
What’s wrong with suspecting someone? It doesn’t mean saying “I KNOW YOU’RE A DIRTY DRUG CHEAT AS A FACT~!” or anything. It means not being so naive as to continue giving guys a pass because they take a painfully flawed test. People have had decades to learn how to pass urine tests, they mean nothing. They’re basically operating under an “honor system” now.
If you’re going to believe nobody who passes dare be questioned because a few morons get busted for taking horse steroids now and that means nobody can work the system, then you’re naive.
There are so many things wrong with this piece that I don’t know where to start.
First off the idea that Koscheck is some sort of people’s champion fighting for clean fighter is complete bullshit. He is trying to pull a BJ Penn by throwing baseless accusations at a guy who tooled him. He isn’t fighting to make the sport clean and the fact that he played you of all people Zach like a mark is stunning to me.
Dana is 100% right about what he said, he won’t allow his sport to be dictated by a bunch of egotistical jackasses who want to run the sport. If Kos doesn’t like it he can leave and the idea that you think he can win a PR war against the UFC is even more laughable. Seriously nobody believes any of the crap coming out of this guys mouth nor should they Zach and i’m surprised you fell for it.
Read what I wrote again — people like me and Dr. Goodman are under no illusion that Mayweather and Koscheck are simply stirring the pot for gamesmanship. At the asme time, it should be used to positively benefit the improvement of testing.
Maybe you need to re-write the piece because it came off as you buying everything that Kos was selling and trying to make him a martyr fighting to make the sport clean.
You want more stringent testing you go after the AC and make sure that if they test that they don’t screw over fighters first like they have in the past.
Also let’s make sure that we are testing for the right reasons and let’s not turn things into a witchhunt which is where most of this conversation has been turning into.
Gamesmanship or not–Mayweather agreed and pushed for testing. To in any way defend the excuse of “sapped energy” or “afraid of needles” (dude has tattoos) is laughable.
In the Koscheck-GSP scenario–this has the potential to be a PR disaster. Without comment on the effectiveness of the “independent” commission testing–the GSP-Koscheck scenario is different than Mayweather-Pacquiao.
Koscheck called for testing–and GSP immediately agreed! It was the promotion that came out and put a stop to it–not the fighters.
Which doesn’t excuse the idea that Mayweather is in no position to demand anything from Manny, this is why there won’t be any PR disasters because the majority of people can see through bullshit.
This idea that fighters can make up their own rules and dictate what they will or won’t do will basically kill any sport. You don’t let ego maniacs run the sport, when you do you end up with guys ducking tough fights and making a spectacle of the sport which is what Mayweather did.
I don’t agree with that EJ.
In the Olympics, the tests are mandatory. Why is that?
Also, Floyd is perfectly within his rights to require, by contract, testing. If Manny doesn’t agree, they don’t have to fight. To say the demand is “unreasonable” seems to fly in the face of evidence and is contrary to Olympic and international drug testing standards as well.