NAC: We approve USADA and we can un-approve USADA
NAC Chairman Anthony Marnell: “The public ain’t buying this, and I’ll tell you, I ain’t buying this. It’s weak and it’s soft.”
At a three-hour hearing on Tuesday, the Nevada Athletic Commission granted a one-fight license to UFC light heavyweight champion Jon Jones, and also issued a clear warning to the US Anti-Doping Agency, the UFC’s independent drug testing service.
Although USADA rules are that the UFC, the fighter, and the athletic commission are to be informed of an anti-doping violation, no such notice was provided to the NAC on August 9 and September 18 when USADA tests showed trace amounts of a metabolite for turinabol.
USADA Results Management and Investigations Senior Director Jeff Cook said the agency did not report the findings because it did not have a full understanding of the metabolite and didn’t want Jones punished twice. Further, USADA did not believe Jones was under the jurisdiction of either California or Nevada, although the latter was informed on December 6 out of an “abundance of courtesy and caution, because Jones was to fight on December 28 in Las Vegas, and because, as soon as we were able to be confident in our understanding of how to interpret those results was the moment we provided notification and how we were handling them.
NAC Chairman Anthony Marnell is not impressed
You have a really significant flaw in your reporting system, said Bennett to Cook, as transcribed by John Morgan and Steven Marrocco for MMAjunkie. There are clear issues between USADA and athletic commission and promoters. We’re not on the same page. And in my opinion, what suffers from this is credibility by all. My credibility suffers, and your credibility suffers. It’s hard to digest months and months of tests that you’ve decided you’re going to hold onto until you know what it is. We have to get to a higher standard of credibility amongst all of our organizations. The public ain’t buying this, and I’ll tell you, I ain’t buying this. It’s weak and it’s soft.
Interpretation of those results is not something that any testing agency should hold on before submitting it to the agency where the fighter is either under suspension or scheduled to fight. There are communication gaps, and there were communication gaps with USADA long before the UFC ever hired USADA to do its testing. We’ve got to get better at it. They’ve got to get better at it. Our world, it’s really simple. We just want the information as fast as we can get it. We don’t always get that.
The issue they all have to recognize is, that testing program is approved by the state. That testing program can also be un-approved by the state. If it gets to the point where we’re unhappy, then we’ll have a hearing to determine if that should perpetuate in Nevada. I’m not there yet. I don’t think we’re there yet – I think we need to work through some issues. But bumps are happening. This is a bump. This is a big bump. But it’s not like these bumps are happening every month.”
California has indicated it will no longer reply on USADA. Nevada may be just one more fiasco away from following suit. And there will be another USADA fiasco.