Does anyone believe USADA is actually effective?

PlasticFishBowl

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With the TJ return, I’ve heard a lot more people speaking about USADA lately. I can’t believe how many people actually think that USADA has cleaned up PED usage in the UFC.

The facts: 8 fighters have been punished by USADA in 2021. (Source: https://ufc.usada.org/testing/results/sanctions/)

There are over 700 fighters in the UFC’s testing pool currently.

USADA is a tool to catch absolute morons (Jon Jones, O’Malley, etc.) Anyone with the slightest common sense can easily pass tests while being juicy. Forget obvious users like Costa, Francis, or Izzy. USADA catches like 15-20 people a year in a roster of 700+. To claim USADA is effective would be to claim that 95%+ of the UFC roster is clean.

UFC should do away with the charade and just let fighters openly juice. It would lead to quicker fights ( Francis wouldn’t have to go back to Cameroon to cycle between fights, same for essentially every Russian and Brazilian on the roster), it would eliminate the arbitrary nature of punishing a few while most go free, and it would allow super juicers who don’t have to waste time cycling off and can go full TRT Vitor level.
 
It's far from perfect, but it clearly has a significant effect.

They're hella sketchy though, i think since TJ popped for EPO, no champion/top contender or so has ever (on paper) tested positive again, when it happened far more frequently pre-TJ, IIRC.
 
They probably do have a legitimate testing routine.

But insiders probably know what you can and can't use.. withdrawal times, cycles, the levels the machines are set to detect on certain things etc.

So I suspect rampart usage from just about everyone.
 
Effective at what? I think their job, in both their own eyes and in those of the UFC, is to be a fig leaf. I think they manage that fairly well.


But if you mean cleaning up the sport?
111_Jon_Jones.0.jpg
 
It's far from perfect, but it clearly has a significant effect.

They're hella sketchy though, i think since TJ popped for EPO, no champion/top contender or so has ever (on paper) tested positive again, when it happened far more frequently pre-TJ, IIRC.
It's far from perfect, but it clearly has a significant effect.

They're hella sketchy though, i think since TJ popped for EPO, no champion/top contender or so has ever (on paper) tested positive again, when it happened far more frequently pre-TJ, IIRC.

looking down the list of people they’ve sanctioned, the last contender I see was Yair last year, but it was for basically hiding from them. Before that, the last one was Costa for using IVs in 2019 and Vettori for ostarine.

they don’t often catch top fighters on anything which shows that people with resources are able to pass these tests.
 
Anyone with the slightest common sense can easily pass tests while being juicy.

That's how it was before USADA. Now a lot of fighters have clearly quit juicing or aren't doing so at nearly their previous levels. You see it in some fighter physiques, you see it in other fighters' records.

So maybe microdosing is the thing, or a few have ways around it, but there aren't nearly as many blatant cases as there were 10 years ago when every single fighter was more ripped than Costa.
 
No, it was only implemented so the Fertitas could sell it off and the promotion would look "professional"

The only ones who get caught are Russians and Brazilians who first sign with the UFC and they don't have the resources like their colleagues at bigger camps or Stateside.

They are probably not juicing 24/7 like in Pride or pre-USADA, but they are all still on the juice
 
no system is perfect. even at the olympics. but it does help deter people from using. and you can't just say someone is juicing based on how they look. francis has always been jacked.

i think the problem with letting everyone juice is that people can die if they don't do it right. not that dana would care, but its really bad PR if your roster is having roid rage from steroids and strokes from EPO.
 
looking down the list of people they’ve sanctioned, the last contender I see was Yair last year, but it was for basically hiding from them. Before that, the last one was Costa for using IVs in 2019 and Vettori for ostarine.

they don’t often catch top fighters on anything which shows that people with resources are able to pass these tests.
Money helps a ton there, no doubt.
I am still kinda adamant about my point; i think MMA on point made a video not long ago on this specific issue, i'll search it and link it here.
 
With the TJ return, I’ve heard a lot more people speaking about USADA lately. I can’t believe how many people actually think that USADA has cleaned up PED usage in the UFC.

The facts: 8 fighters have been punished by USADA in 2021. (Source: https://ufc.usada.org/testing/results/sanctions/)

There are over 700 fighters in the UFC’s testing pool currently.

USADA is a tool to catch absolute morons (Jon Jones, O’Malley, etc.) Anyone with the slightest common sense can easily pass tests while being juicy. Forget obvious users like Costa, Francis, or Izzy. USADA catches like 15-20 people a year in a roster of 700+. To claim USADA is effective would be to claim that 95%+ of the UFC roster is clean.

UFC should do away with the charade and just let fighters openly juice. It would lead to quicker fights ( Francis wouldn’t have to go back to Cameroon to cycle between fights, same for essentially every Russian and Brazilian on the roster), it would eliminate the arbitrary nature of punishing a few while most go free, and it would allow super juicers who don’t have to waste time cycling off and can go full TRT Vitor level.

I do think that it helps.
Yes, it does not catch all. But it is not meant to be so.
It is supposed to be a deterrent.

I would hope that they could truly clean the sport, but it is not realistic on a sport that goes on forever (as compared with Olympics)
 
tests are expensive and adverse results negatively affect their respective sport....so it's in a lose-lose situation.
 
I'm pretty sure about 3 years ago USADA got bought out on the side, bribes or whatever, and now it's just another tool of the UFC that doesn't work 100% to keep the sport clean, but instead just busts low level no namers to make it seem like they are still doing their job, and to make it seem like the sport is clean of Performance enhancers.
 
They need to videotape these guys peeing into the cup and post it online so we, the fans, can see with our own eyes that it's really their piss getting tested.
 
I'm pretty sure about 3 years ago USADA got bought out on the side, bribes or whatever, and now it's just another tool of the UFC that doesn't work 100% to keep the sport clean, but instead just busts low level no namers to make it seem like they are still doing their job, and to make it seem like the sport is clean of Performance enhancers.
How did “usada” get bought out? They paid everyone in the company? They paid everyone in the company and everyone at the wada lab? They just paid one guy? Who paid them from what? These CT’s need to make some sense. Maybe it’s true but it seems illogical on the surface.
 
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