Issue 132

September 2015

Gareth A Davies MMA and Boxing Correspondent for The Daily Telegraph, London, UK hails an MMA revolution that will safeguard the sport’s future.

Former double Olympic 400m hurdles champion Ed Moses told me recently that he reserves high praise for the work the UFC is doing behind the scenes to clean up the sport with random drug-testing. Now the chairman of the Board of Directors for the US

Anti-Doping Association (USADA), he became widely known in the track and field world for his work as a reformer in drug testing following his retirement from athletics.

It’s not often that I quote someone at length in these FO columns, but every word uttered by Moses on the subject should be marked and inwardly-digested by everyone in the sport – fighters, trainers, managers and fans. It’s that important. 

Moses reckons the move could be the single most significant change MMA has ever inculcated, and will safeguard its continuity for a new generation and for the perception of the sport on a wider level long after Dana White and Lorenzo Fertitta have departed the organization, perhaps 20 or 30 years from now.  

Moses revealed to me he was in the boardroom at the UFC in June when the UFC was not only announcing, but discussing the parameters of everything it intend to do. He came away with the sense that the sport has genuinely grown up with this latest development. 

Given that Moses has been around drugs testing for almost 30 years, it speaks volumes. He witnessed, he told me, “a true concern for the future” of MMA and “the safety of the athletes. They’re quite aware of the history of the sport and how it started and the personalities that have started it and how fast the sport has. They want to make sure it’s sustainable and to protect the health and the welfare of it. I really feel they’ve done the right thing for a generation of fighters. 

“They’re going to be able to maintain control of the investment that they’ve made and protect the health and the integrity of the sport.” Moses, by the way, watches “plenty of MMA.” His 19-year-old son introduced him to it.

And he believes it’s the new generation who are spearheading the clean-up. “We had meetings, we did a seminar for the UFC athletes and had 40 or 50 of them there. These are the new generation. They came, asked some really good questions about USADA, drug testing and things like concussions, steroids, penalties, sanctions, and we spent a whole day with their people. They’re the ones who want it. 

“The new generation don’t want to compete in a situation where they can’t win unless they do what they hear is being done. At USADA, our job is to protect the playing field for athletes, so they don’t feel they have to use drugs to win. We feel we’re there to protect the athletes from themselves and the athletes from the sport and sometimes the sport from itself as well.”

Moses’ clarity on this was refreshing, and as most of us are aware, it may get rockier before things level out if some fighters ignore the warnings and still try to flaunt the new rules. As Michael Bisping put it to me succinctly recently, it’s only “stupid fighters” who get caught in training camp or in the build-up to fights. The knock on the door at 6am, three months out, will be the acid test for some. USADA, seriously, are primed to tear fighters apart who are not taking the ramifications seriously. 

“From our point of view at USADA, we wouldn’t be involved if we didn’t think we were doing the right thing. We had meetings at the board (and) administrative level at USADA… We went through it ad nauseam for months. We’re quite confident that they have given us the authority to do the right thing and we know what we have to do. It’s not different from any other sport, other than the nature of it. We were impressed that the UFC made a wholehearted change to make sure their sport is going to do the right thing for the athletes. That’s important.”

As a side issue, Moses said USADA will also implement strict policies on recreational drugs, adding: “We’ll also be looking to make some adjustments on the therapeutic-use exemptions, and make some adjustments on the penalties just the same as in the NFL, NBA and all the professional sports.” 

In short, the July 1st rollout date heralded a revolution in the sport, the biggest we have ever seen, with what will be the most stringent Big Brother testing policy ever – year-round observation and testing. It’s going to be a fascinating couple of years from that perspective. Expect to see fighters have shorter shelf lives, and dare it be said, slowly change physique. Only fools would not applaud the change.   

When you consider that horse racing in the United States does not have random drug testing yet for its horses, you’ll understand why this is the great leap forward for MMA.