UFC drug czar implores ACs to get it right on PED testing
Jeff Novitzky: “If you’re going to do your own testing, please, please, please run it by experts or rely on experts in your results management process.”
UFC Vice President of Athlete Health and Performance Jeff Novitzky spoke today at the 2017 Association of Boxing Commissions annual convention. Novitzky discussed the UFC’s efforts to stop doping, and noted that the number of athletes caught had gone down, which he identified as a sign that testing was working. Novitzky explained that PED testing does not seek simply to catch as many people as possible, but, done properly, seeks to act as a deterrent.
Without naming names, Novitzky also responded to a recent controversy in Texas.
It’s so important in anti-doping that you get it right, said Novitzky, as transcribed by Steven Marrocco for MMAjunkie.
If you’re going to do your own testing, please, please, please run it by experts or rely on experts in your results management process.”
The fighter in question was basically falsely accused of an anti-doping violation based on the commission just really not having that knowledge and expertise, and they didn’t reach out to those experts to confirm what the results said.
We are happy to provide you with experts, whether [from] USADA, or WADA lab directors, or scientists who’ve made a career out of anti-doping all throughout the world. I’m happy to provide that contact to you to get it right. A false accusation in anti-doping is one of the worst things that can happen. It taints the entire movement.
Many athletes aren’t sophisticated enough to know the difference between a commission doing this and USADA, and what I always say is the comprehensiveness and strength of anti-doping – just as important is the fairness and due process. If you don’t have fairness and due process for an athlete, and an athlete’s falsely accused, an athlete loses confidence in the process. Once that confidence is lost, they look around and try to get around … to use drugs and cheat.