CSAC surprise testing entire UFN 71 card out of competition
The CSAC is doing surprise out of competition testing for nearly the entire card at UFC Fight Night 71: Mir vs. Duffee, which takes place on July 15 in San Diego.
The California State Athletic Commission under the leadership of executive director Andy Foster has taken an aggressive, and expensive, stance on the use of Performance Enhancing Drugs in mixed martial arts. The CSAC administered comprehensive – and expensive – blood tests to the entire UFC 184 card. They suspended Bellator bantamweight Mike Richman for two years after he failed a PED test. And last week they suspended former Bellator middleweight champion Alexander Shlemenko for three years after he failed one.
Now the CSAC is doing surprise out of competition testing for nearly the entire card at UFC Fight Night 71: Mir vs. Duffee, which takes place on July 15 in San Diego. The testing began last week, with urine samples being taken from all fighters in the USA. Results will be returned before the start of the event.
Foster does not yet a process to out of competition test fighters overseas. International fighters will likely be subject to carbon isotope ratio (CIR) tests when they arrive, so that all fighters are subject to relatively equal requirements.
An AC subjecting an entire card to surprise, random, out of competition testing is unprecedented, and could open a window on the extent of PED use in the sport, or on the dearth of it.
UFN 71
Frank Mir vs. Todd Duffee
Gilbert Melendez vs. Al Iaquinta
Josh Thomson vs. Tony Ferguson
Holly Holm vs. Marion Reneau
Kevin Lee vs. James Moontasri
Alan Jouban vs. Matt Dwyer
Sam Sicilia vs. TBA
Jessica Andrade vs. Sarah Moras
Scott Jorgensen vs. Manvel Gamburyan
Rani Yahya vs. Masanori Kanehara
Igor Araujo vs. Sean Strickland
Andrew Craig vs. Lyman Good
Kevin Casey vs. Ildemar Alcântara