Questions raised about Cung Le test

When UFC middleweight Cung Le underwent a dramatic body transformation in his early 40s before his fight with Michael Bisping at UFC Fight Night 48 in Aug, the hardcore fanbase was not naive. You don’t need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows.

This is Le weighing in two years earlier, vs. Rich Franklin.

When Le posted the training picture below on his social networks, fans nearly universally believed that the training, the prayers, and the vitamins were having an obvious effect.

Le attributed it to lighting and a just completed hard workout.

Weigh ins had the same lighting.

Then the UFC announced that Le had tested positive for HGH, and suspended him. View the test results here.

Mixed martial arts is regulated by the government across North America. However, regulation internationally is spotty, and so the UFC often is forced to self regulate. As an institution, the UFC is uniquely set up to regulate, as CEO Lorenzo Fertitta is a former Commissioner on the Nevada State Athletic Commission, VP of Regulatory Affairs Marc Ratner is a former Executive Director of the NSAC, and Chief Legal Officer Kirk Hendrick is former legal counsel for the NSAC.

The league is moving aggressively into PED testing, but a piece by Ben Fowlkes for MMAJunkie argues that the process that flagged Le may remain a work in progress.

I think (the test done by the UFC) is useless,” said anti-doping scientist Dr. Don Catlin. “I wouldn’t pay any attention to it all.

The problem, according to Catlin, is that testing for HGH is a tricky business. In order to do it accurately, you need to do it a lab approved by and operating under the standards of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA). The UFC, instead, went through the Hong Kong Functional Medical Testing Center, which is closer to an occupational drug testing lab than anything, say, the Olympics might use to analyze an athlete’s blood sample.

The only people who can do HGH testing properly are those who are running WADA labs, and have the reagents supplied by WADA, Catlin said. That works. That’s what any sport testing for HGH, that’s legitimate and is useful, will do. But you have to be a WADA-accredited lab to get the reagents. They’re hard to come by.

A flawed process that ends up with the right outcome is still a flawed process. If the issues Fowlkes raised are true – samples not saved, lab inadequate to the complex test, etc – then the UFC’s admirable efforts are going to need significant further refinement.

One of the concerns brought up by Fowlkes was the lack of an appeal process. UFC president Dana White has announced that a third party arbitrator will be available to contest the suspension.

I’m glad I’m able to appeal and am very confident, said Le to Lance Pugmire for the LA Times. The facts are out there. If the right test had been done, this would have never happened. This is new to everyone — to the UFC, obviously — and I’m happy to now have the chance I deserve to appeal after taking a pounding and getting called a cheater by people who’ve never researched my career or taken note that it was spotless before this.

My levels were high because I was in recovery mode (he reported that the sample was taken 15 mins after the fight). They pull me into the drug testing room, telling me to test. I’m bleeding all over the place and they haven’t started stitching me up yet. They clean me up a little … I had three cuts on my face. The lady starts sticking me, having a hard time finding a vein. I look down, a stream of blood is flying off my arm. My urine was completely bloody because of my eye injury, I had bruised ribs … you think the body wouldn’t be under stress?

Le reiterated in the interview that his physique was due to training, proper nutrition, and an injury free camp.