CSAC head: 90% PED use estimate too high
Andy Foster: “Do I think that 90-percent of the fighters, or 80-percent, or even 50-percent of the fighters out there are doing performance enhancing drugs? I do not.”
California State Athletic Commission executive director Andy Foster has broader experience than any regulator in the world. He has been an MMA fighter (only losses were to Brian Ebersole and Amar Suloev), kickboxer and grappler, coach, combat sports promoter, regulator, and much more. He has as broad experience as anyone in the entire sport.
Foster appeared recently on The MMA Hour, and speaking as someone who has caught an outsized share of cheats, including most recently Jon Fitch, he said the estimate that 90% of fighters are using performance enhancing drugs is a gross exaggeration.
“I do a lot of testing over here, so I look at all of the results that we get back, and certainly there is a problem,” said Foster as transcribed by Shaun Al-Shatti for MMAFighting.com. “I think we all agree that there is a problem. Do I think that 90-percent of the fighters, or 80-percent, or even 50-percent of the fighters out there are doing performance enhancing drugs? I do not. I do not believe that. My evidence does not support that.
“You get a fight card of 24 athletes and you get one or two who pop — the percentage of that is not that high. You even go to the out-of-competition stuff, and I think with the recent [results] — very small numbers, mind you — but what, 30-percent, or 38-percent, or whatever it was, who popped? I mean, that’s certainly a problem. Certainly it’s a problem, and I’m not saying it’s not a problem, but it’s not 90-percent of the people doing it.”
“I think there’s a lot of great ideas that came out of the press conference. We’ve got to wait and see more specifics on who they get, how they unfold it. But certainly I think everyone would agree that those are a lot of good ideas that came out of that.”
“With any new program, they’ll have to get the logistics in order, but certainly they can. It’s going to be expensive, I would think. I know it’s going to be expensive.
“I would guess that would be about two millions dollars. Two or three millions dollars. Maybe two million. Depends on how many times you want to test them, but that seems about right. Obviously (it also matters) what you want to test them for. I don’t know what they’re paying and all of that. I just know what our contract says and how much it costs and these different types of things. Depends on what you want to test them for. If you add blood to the mix as well, which I assume they do, it certainly increases the cost of the test.
“I’m not a lab guy. I’ve never taken a performance enhancing drug and only have looked at the studies, so I don’t know. I don’t know if [fight night urine tests are] easy to beat or not. Maybe they are. But I think out-of-competition (tests are) good. That way people know that they can’t take [PEDs] during their training, so I think that’s important. I think increasing the penalties are important. Because what you want to create is an environment of deterrence and a clean sport.”
Regardless of whether 90% of fighters are taking PEDs, or 10%, there is broad agreement that both are too high. And there is increasing agreement that penalties are too low. Expect to see Foster continue to lead the way with testing, and to address the penalty issue.