What happens when USADA fails?

Perhaps the science and testing should be solidified first before people’s livelihoods are put at stake and people are unjustly punished.”
-Tom Lawlor

When a fighter fails a U.S. Anti-Doping Agency test, it can be the end of a career. What happens when USADA fails?

In 2016, Tom Lawlor, longtime UFC middleweight and light heavyweight, and huge favorite of The UnderGround, had an anti-doping test flagged by USADA, the UFC’s independent drug testing agency. Lawlor credibly maintained his innocence, but received a full two-year suspension for Ostarine.

Lawlor had requested to be released from his contract with the UFC but was denied. He had been professional wrestling in the interim, and planned a return to the Octagon. The ten-year UFC vet was 2-1 his last three when he was suspended, with the sole loss being a decision to Corey Anderson, who is currently #8 in the league. Fight before that, he knocked out Gian Villante winning a performance bonus, his fourth in the last ten fights.

Then months before his suspension was the end, the UFC released him, at age 35, with two years gone.

Four fighters recently received negligible 6-month suspensions for Ostarine, as tests are so sophisticated they are finding ancient contamination. Lawlor recently asked what was different about his case.

https://twitter.com/FilthyTomLawlor/status/1120812439061311489

USADA doesn’t have an ethical answer.

USADA communications director Adam Woullard wrote in a statement to Marc Raimondi for MMA Fighting that lab testing is more sensitive and able to detect far smaller quantities and new metabolites of PEDs than even just a few years ago, which can lead to more intentional cheats being caught, but also some inadvertent positives, like via supplement contamination.

Woullard wrote that if Lawlor’s ostarine case happened in 2019, it’s possible he would have been eligible for a shorter suspension length and would have the ability to challenge to an independent arbitrator to determine the final consequence. But his two-year suspension was the standard sanction at the time.

An effective and just anti-doping program should always evolve to best protect clean athletes and to evaluate the facts and science for each individual athlete and fairly sanction intentional dopers. Today, laboratory testing is more sensitive and able to detect far smaller quantities and new metabolites of PEDs than even just a few years ago, which is great for detecting intentional cheats because of longer detection windows, but on the flip side may also mean some inadvertent positives such as through product contamination are found.

While the facts in Lawlor are similar but not necessarily identical to the ostarine cases announced this week, he received the standard sanction at the time for his violation announced in 2017. If his case arose today, he might have been eligible for a lower sanction and would have the ability to challenge to an independent arbitrator to determine the final consequence.

So what happens to USADA when they fail? Nothing.