Tygart: UFC will have ‘no involvement’ in testing
The UFC might be implementing this new drug policy, but once it gets going it’s the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency’s show, according to USADA CEO Travis Tygart.
At the beginning of this month the UFC announced they had signed a deal with USADA to over see a comprehensive drug testing policy to be overseen by USADA. The CEO of USADA recently joined the MMA Hour to iterate that once the UFC hands over the reigns, they will have no further involvement in any of the decision making on disciplining:
The UFC might be implementing this new drug policy, but once it gets going it’s the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency’s show, according to USADA CEO Travis Tygart.
Tygart told Ariel Helwani on Monday’s edition of The MMA Hour that the UFC will not be allowed to meddle in any of the drug-testing procedures once the new regulations go into place in July. The UFC won’t have a say in who is tested nor when. It won’t be able to shield a popular fighter from testing or prevent a main event from being scrapped due to a positive test, Tygart said.
And, perhaps most importantly, the UFC will have no say over discipline taken against a fighter. That eliminates all conflict of interest.