Lorenzo: “we will randomly test all 500 of our athletes”
source | MMAFighting.com
On Wednesday, UFC CEO Lorenzo Fertitta appeared on set for a taping of UFC Tonight and was asked what the UFC is doing to combat the problem of rampant PED use in the UFC.
“Well, actually it’s becoming less of a problem, because we have really stepped up our game as far as testing,” Fertitta said. “So for these athletes there’s nowhere to hide. The first step was working with the various athletic commissions to make sure we had testing for the night of the fight, for every fighter on the card. Whereas it used to be years ago, it was more of a random basis. They would test the main event and maybe some of the others fighters. We said, you know what, we’ll pay for it — we’ll test everybody on the card.”
“Now the next step for us, and what we’re working on, is a complete project where we will randomly test all 500 of our athletes multiple times per year. We’re working on that. It’s going to be a comprehensive plan. And you know what? At the end of the day, if you’re cheating, we will catch you. You will get suspended, possibly fined, and we take it very serious. Because…our fans want to make sure our sport is clean [and] I think the athletes want the sport to be clean. The clean athletes want the sport to be clean.”