The UFC shocked the world over the weekend when it announced the return of Brock Lesnar to the octagon, specifically UFC 200 against heavy-hitting Super Samoan Mark Hunt. The deal was obviously a massive one and the company pulled out all the stops to make sure nothing got in its way — and that included bending the rules a little in regards to their USADA drug-testing program.
As we reported yesterday, the UFC Anti-Doping Policy states that all fighters unretiring must go through a four-month waiting period (with standard random testing) before being allowed to compete again. That’s to make sure a fighter can’t use steroids and then suddenly return to competition after the substances have cleared his or her system. But the UFC waived this stipulation for Lesnar, stating “for purposes of the Anti-Doping Policy, he is being treated similarly to a new athlete coming into the organization.”
That raised a few eyebrows, but if you were worried Lesnar would slip onto the UFC 200 card and then back out to WWE without getting tested, worry no more:
So @BrockLesnar was tested by @usantidoping today. It will appear on database at https://t.co/4dtvoUJPZk next week.
— Kevin Iole (@KevinI) June 8, 2016
It took USADA all of four days from the announcement of Lesnar’s return to send someone over and test him. Under USADA testing, fighters can be randomly tested at any time, as many times as USADA decides. And they test a lot. For example, since the UFC adopted the stringent system in July 2015, Ronda Rousey has been tested five times. So while some suspicious people have legitimate concerns over Brock’s exemption from the mandatory four months testing period leading up to a return, you can’t ignore the fact that he just agreed to participate in the most rigorous drug testing program in pro sports today.
