Drug czar: Use of IVs could result in 2 year ban
UFC VP of athlete health and performance Jeff Novitzky said recently on The MMA Hour, that a fighter who violates the IV ban could be suspended for up to two years.
On October 1, the UFC will implement a ban on using an IV to rehydrate after weigh ins.
Last month UFC featherweight champion Jose Aldo expressed outrage at the ban, which has been nearly universally panned by fighters.
“I will continue to do IV, I don’t care,” vowed Aldo. “I will go to a friend’s house, to a different hotel room. I don’t f—ing care about them. They won’t take me out of the fight anyway. They can’t take me from the fight. It’s not doping. They will say they will test me. How are they going to get IV rehydration from my urine, brother? Only if they got new techniques. They are ninjas. They are f—ing stupid.”
Weight cutting is already extreme in the sport, and dehydration leads to increased head trauma. By rehydrating with an IV, the stomach is spared from having to take in the massive needed fluids, making it easier to take in food.
But it will soon be at an end.
The use of IV is problematic in multiple regards. A WADA tester showed up at an athlete hotel in Europe, and was spotted in the lobby. The team doctor rushed to the athlete in question and forced multiple bags of saline into the cyclist. By the time the tester came out of the elevator and was in the hotel room, the athlete’s blood showed some anomalies, but was passed. This ability to mask PEDs is not the sole issue.
Blood doping leaves molecular traces identical to rehydrating with an IV. Blood doping is the practice of withdrawing blood from an athlete and then reinserting it days later when the body has reproduced the missing blood. As red blood cells carry oxygen from the lungs to the muscles, an increase in the number of red blood cells can improve an athlete’s aerobic capacity and endurance.
UFC vice president of athlete health and performance Jeff Novitzky appeared recently on Ariel Helwani’s The MMA Hour, and said a fighter who violates the IV ban could be suspended for up to two years.
“The risk versus reward under this program, I mean if someone is found out to have taken an IV you’re facing a potential two-year ban, which is a long time in the UFC and in MMA,” said Novitzky, as transcribed by Marc Raimondi for MMAFighting.com. “Hopefully all those factors that are put forth, everyone will follow the rules.”
“It is something that [fighters] are going to have to deal with. Whether it means walking around when fights aren’t scheduled a little closer to that fight weight, whether it means, which hopefully it does, being educated through us and through others on how to properly orally rehydrate. The studies and science show that as long as the dehydration isn’t too severe oral rehydration is actually better for you. It’s safer for you. Studies show that you’ll feel like exercise is a little bit easier and you’re exerting less if you orally hydrate.”
“What was surprising to me was the prevalence of its use in this sport, not necessarily to try to defeat anti-doping tests, but for rehydration purposes. That and the extreme weight cuts that were going on. That was a surprise.”
If a fighter had rehydrate at a hospital via an IV, it would not result in a suspension. However, if the fighter had to go to the hospital, the regulating commission could remove the fighter from the card.
Aldo is factually incorrect that USADA cannot test for use of the IV. There is a test for the molecules of plastic used in the bag. And over time (fighters will be tested from 2-4 to 10-12 times per year) a biological passport will be developed. At that point, USADA can tell if the fighter’s blood and urine is diluted due to an IV.
Further, USADA will be keeping samples for years, and applying new tests to them, as they become available.
“Even if there wasn’t a definitive test now, there could be two or three years from now,” he said.
While the issue of PEDs in MMA is being addressed admirably, dealing with weight cutting has only just begun, and is now more dangerous to an unknown degree.
And in positive news, Novitzky and Aldo came to agreement on the issue.
When we were in Brazil a couple of weeks ago, I had a conversation with him about that,” explained Novtzky to MMAJunkie. “And he said it was just one of those days where he was in a certain mood, maybe a little bit joking, maybe a little bit pissed off about something else, and said those things. He said he shouldn’t have and doesn’t believe (that). He apologized for doing that, so I felt pretty good after that meeting that he felt that way.
