Fabrico Werdum asks the most important question of the year
“Why do I have to stop just because USADA said you stop and that’s it?”
Justice in the USA is based on an adversarial model. If the judge were part of the prosecution team, or the defense team, the system would fall apart.
However, in its anti-doping efforts for the UFC, USADA acts as both judge and jury. There is a process for an independent arbitrator to intervene, but it is expensive, and beyond the reach of most fighters.
In sum, the current USADA-UFC process is unethical at the most fundamental level.
Former UFC heavyweight champion Fabricio Werdum is suspended for two years over what he believes to be a tainted supplement, and during a recent appearance on The Ariel Helwani MMA Show, the fighter asked coherently, “Why do I have to stop fighting just because USADA says so?”
I have two more fights with UFC but I have this bulls*** thing with USADA,” said Werdum, as transcribed by Adam Guillen Jr. for MMA Mania. “The guys know, hey, I don’t have a problem with USADA, I have nothing in my life with doping, zero. I have 26 tests with USADA and I never have nothing.”
The guys test me every time, and that one time its nothing, very little thing in my body. And USADA knows it’s a contamination, you know? But they say, ‘no,’ and they give me two years.
It’s a very hard situation because I don’t want to stop fighting yet. I am young, I am 41 but my mind feels 28. My body is okay. I love UFC, I work in UFC in TV, but the best decision for me is a release for sure. I want a release to fight more. I just, I love this is, this is my life, I love fighting.
Why do I have to stop just because USADA said you stop and that’s it? It’s no good because the guys know it’s a contamination, it’s nothing. Why would I take something if I never take nothing in my life?
The guys test me one time it’s positive. They test me again two weeks later and there is nothing. I don’t understand it. How can you have something in your body and two weeks later no more?
Werdum is far from alone in his thinking. California State Athletic Commission Executive Director Andy Foster believes in drug testing, but after watching the USADA process around Jon Jones, he does not have confidence in USADA’s ability to sanction athletes in California.
I think it’s good to have doping controls, said Foster recently. I think this process was a wreck, and I think we learned from the process. If we keep doing this to the fighters, that’s not serving the public interest. I just don’t think that process is right. I think that the law backs up my thoughts.
USADA does a technically remarkable job of testing, but their expertise ends there. Their ability to reasonably sanction fighters for the doping violations they discover is compromised at the most fundamental level. The good news is, the sport of mixed martial arts is regulated at the government state, provincial, tribal, and municipal levels, and those bodies can far more fairly determine appropriate sanctions than can USADA.