White: UFC abandoning out-of-competition testing; ‘We f—-d it up’
The UFC decided it would step in and handle it, but after a mishap with the testing of Cung Le, they have now decided to leave it to the athletic commissions.
In 2014 the UFC announced that it would start to test it’s athletes for drugs of abuse and performance enhancing drugs out of competition. For years athletic commissions have subjected athletes to testing on and before fight night if they are scheduled in their jurisdiction, but did not have the ability or resources to test the fighters out of competition. The UFC decided it would step in and handle it, but after a mishap with the testing of Cung Le, they have now decided to leave it to the athletic commissions, but help them fund it:
White said the experience made him realize the UFC cannot oversee its own program.
“Our legal team completed screwed that up. We f—-d it up, and we will f–k it up again. That’s what the commission is there for,” he said.
White continued by saying that while they have come to the realization that the promotion cannot oversee its own drug testing program, Zuffa will instead give more money to athletic commissions to help fund additional testing.
“What we’ll do is we’ll help fund it, so they can do more drug testing,” he said. “Our legal department screwed that whole thing up. We’ve got no business handling the regulation.”