The testing frequency protocols for the UFC’s independent drug testing agency USADA includes a smell test.
It’s not random testing; it’s intelligent testing, explained UFC VP of Athlete Health and Performance Jeff Novitzky, during an appearance last year on The Joe Rogan Experience. USADA’s not going to say, ‘Hey, we’re going to roll the dice and whoever comes up …’ They’re going to look on everything, from tips that they may get – hell, they’ll even look at physical appearances of athletes. Does this athlete pass kind of the physical appearance ‘smell test,’ and if they don’t, hey, maybe we need to test that person a little bit more.
A fighter failing the smell test might look like this:
When Brock Lesnar signed to fight Mark Hunt on short notice at UFC 200 on July 9, USADA went to work, with the largest battery of PED tests to date. Mark Hunt too has repeatedly stated that he believes Lesnar is a long time PED user.
Lesnar has never failed a PED test, although he was arrested for it in January of 2001, when he received and opened a parcel that police said contained a “large amount of steroids.”
He was 26 at the time, and training at a WWE facility in Kentucky. The felony charges were dropped four months later, when tests showed that the seized pills were not steroids. A Louisville detective told TSG that the pills were some kind of growth hormone, but Lesnar’s defense attorney, Scott Cox, characterized them as a “vitamin type of thing.”
And then there’s these:
During a recent UFC 200 media conference call, Lesnar responded to the PED talk.
“I’ve been dealing with that my entire life,” said lesnar, as transcribed by the Daily Mail. “I’m a white boy and I’m jacked. Deal with it. What do you want me to say? I’m a white boy and I’m jacked, deal with it.”
“I haven’t followed much of anything. I never have. I don’t have a Twitter account. I don’t have Facebook. It is what it is. To me, it’s all BS.”
“Is he better than I am at standup? Of course, he is. Is he a better wrestling than me? Hell no. He’ll probably tell you that too. That’s why we’re fighting. We’re going to see who the best man is with their discipline. That’s what it is.”
