Jeff Novitzky, USADA

UFC to increase USADA testing by ’30 to 40 percent’

It looks like after the wild week USADA and the UFC had this week, the partnership has been extended.

Since Jon Jones’ ‘atypical’ test which forced UFC 232 to be moved to Inglewood, California. UFC VP of athlete health and performance Jeff Novitzky has been under the microscope. Many believe Jones tested positive again. However, Novitzky and USADA are adamant that it is residue left over from his 2017 failure.

Even with fighters and managers saying USADA is a joke and they don’t trust them, the organization will be around even more next year.

“USADA came to us and said, ‘hey, we think you should up the amount of testing that you are doing,’ So we just renewed the contract with USADA and we are increasing our testing numbers between 30 to 40 percent,” Novitzky said on the Joe Rogan Experience podcast. “Currently, the first three years of the program under contract were approximately 700 tests and starting this next year we are going to up that to around 4300-4400 tests. It’s going to be more of a burden. There is going to be USADA showing up at more doorsteps early in the morning for more of our athletes. But, I think this is a perfect example that that increased volume in the testing can actually be a protection to the athlete.”

The UFC already has one of the most intensive drug testing programs in all of sports. Now, it will get even tougher. Fighters will be tested more often, inside training camps and outside. One knock on this, that fighters have taken to social media about, is that they did not have a say in USADA getting extended with more testing.

Ultimately, fighters will have to deal with it. Drug testing is sticking around for the long haul whether fighters like it or not. It has done good for the sport, but as of late, some don’t believe that.

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Cole Shelton
Cole Shelton covers MMA for BJPenn.com, MMANews, and MyMMANews.com while also being the lead MMA odds writer for Sports Betting Dime