UFC COO talks Cung Le suspension, unsuspension

UFC middleweight Cung Le tested positive for elevated levels of HGH, following a loss to Michael Bisping at UFC Macau. As there was no government body regulating the sport in Macau, the UFC was forced to self regulate. Le was suspended, and then when doubts were raised about the merits of the test, the suspension was rescinded. 

UFC chief operating officer Lawrence Epstein spoke with Lance Pugmire for the LA Times about the matter. Epstein said that although no one was fired, he was not happy, and that there would be changes instituted in future to avoid a repeat.

I’m not going to sugarcoat this: We’re not happy with how this particular situation played out, said Epstein. Once we had information, we rescinded it. That’s appropriate under the circumstances. We said it all by rescinding the suspension. I feel like what we did is an adequate remedy.

[The experts] all concluded that though the tests did show elevated levels of HGH, the test that was administered was not conclusive [to say] that those were not the result of exogenous HGH.”

We were in China, using a lab where they analyze the blood locally, so we went to the only facility that was in the area that could do this. We told them what we wanted them to test for. They conducted the test. The test was done properly, but not done to conclusively prove the elevated levels were exogenous.”

What happened was, we got the test results back, explained to [Le’s] representative that these were above the normal levels, that we were going to suspend him. At that point, there was some discussion about whether or not these tests could properly find elevated levels of something that was taken versus something that naturally occurred. We did additional investigation and received additional information … so we rescinded the suspension.

I’m not happy about it, but we had to deal with the situations as they’re presented to you … We assumed the results were valid. It was one of those things. The wrong test was given.

We are not in the drug testing business. We are in the sports/media/fight promotion business. When we have athletic commissions or federations in place, they do it all. When we have situations like we have in Macao, we have to self-regulate. We do the best we can. Frankly, that’s what I think we did.

Epstein said Le’s case was another reason the league is planning third-party comprehensive testing protocol for all contracted fighters. The COO said it could take another six months to get that into place.