Cowboy suffers ‘whereabouts failure’
“They were like ‘where are you?’ and I was like ‘I’m in Vegas’. And they were like ‘we’re at your house’. And I was like ‘well that sucks.’ So I failed. I failed my drug test.”
UFC #1 lightweight contender Donald ‘Cowboy’ Cerrone has fallen afoul of the new U.S. Anti-Doping Agency requirements. He failed to provide his whereabouts, took a snap trip to Vegas, and was not at home when a USADA tester showed up. He has now suffered his first ‘whereabouts failure’ as described on the latest Pirate Life Podcast.
“In the new testing, you have to tell them your whereabouts,” said Cerrone, as transcribed by Karim Zidan for BE. “F—, I don’t know where I’m going to be. They show up to my house and are like ‘where are you this weekend?’ It was on the weekend that I went to Vegas on a whim.
“They were like ‘where are you?’ and I was like ‘I’m in Vegas’. And they were like ‘we’re at your house’. And I was like ‘well that sucks.'”
“So I failed. I failed my drug test.”
In an Aug interview, UFC drug Czar Jeff Novitzky detailed that happens in the event of a Whereabout Failure. The first time a fighter fails to identify where he or she is merits a call from Novitzky. Second strikes Novitzky flies to where the fighter is, and “trails” them for a day or two, to make sure they are filling the app in correctly. Third time the fighter faces sanctions.
Luckily Cerrone is only on strike one, and his fight with champion Rafael Dos Anjos at UFC on FOX 17 on December 19, 2015 is not in jeopardy.