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..current testing system is.
I'm for random drug tests and for strict testing but the USADA system is a total mess in so many aspects.
1. It makes zero sense to have a list of banned substances and to cancel fights if somebody tests positive for those but also say 'hey there might be legit reasons to have them in your system, if you come up with a valid explanation and you can "prove" it, you're free again'.
It sounds fair but it doesn't work in reality. For some fighters, MMA has become a multi-million dollar business and with some effort this easily becomes a loophole. If tainted supplements really are such a problem, it's not impossible to just send a bunch of supplements to private labs and find an actually legitimately tainted supplement. That now works as a free card for whatever PED the supplement is tainted with.
There needs to be a different approach. Have a mandatory list of controlled and not-tainted supplements.
Make your list of banned substances less strictly but judge it in an absolute way. If there are legit reasons that somebody could have it in his system, don't ban it. If there aren't, punish him either way.
2. In other cases (Bork Laser) it's the other way around. They actually didn't cancel the fight but could have had the results earlier if they paid some extra money. Here they're suddenly doing the opposite and risk the health of a fighter for a couple of dollars. No consistency at all.
3. Don't punish people for what they say without actual evidence. Why are they stricter than an actual court of law? Fighters get banned for saying they took something without failing a test. If I walk into a police station and confess to a crime but there is not only zero evidence that this crime happened at all, they even have a test which usually determines if I committed the crime and I pass this test, I'm typically not going to jail for 4 years. Yes it's important to clean the sport but we're talking about MMA and a bunch of athletes where some fight for 10/10 for god's sake, it's not a matter of national security or something...
tl;dr I think USADA has to go or significantly change their system
I'm for random drug tests and for strict testing but the USADA system is a total mess in so many aspects.
1. It makes zero sense to have a list of banned substances and to cancel fights if somebody tests positive for those but also say 'hey there might be legit reasons to have them in your system, if you come up with a valid explanation and you can "prove" it, you're free again'.
It sounds fair but it doesn't work in reality. For some fighters, MMA has become a multi-million dollar business and with some effort this easily becomes a loophole. If tainted supplements really are such a problem, it's not impossible to just send a bunch of supplements to private labs and find an actually legitimately tainted supplement. That now works as a free card for whatever PED the supplement is tainted with.
There needs to be a different approach. Have a mandatory list of controlled and not-tainted supplements.
Make your list of banned substances less strictly but judge it in an absolute way. If there are legit reasons that somebody could have it in his system, don't ban it. If there aren't, punish him either way.
2. In other cases (Bork Laser) it's the other way around. They actually didn't cancel the fight but could have had the results earlier if they paid some extra money. Here they're suddenly doing the opposite and risk the health of a fighter for a couple of dollars. No consistency at all.
3. Don't punish people for what they say without actual evidence. Why are they stricter than an actual court of law? Fighters get banned for saying they took something without failing a test. If I walk into a police station and confess to a crime but there is not only zero evidence that this crime happened at all, they even have a test which usually determines if I committed the crime and I pass this test, I'm typically not going to jail for 4 years. Yes it's important to clean the sport but we're talking about MMA and a bunch of athletes where some fight for 10/10 for god's sake, it's not a matter of national security or something...
tl;dr I think USADA has to go or significantly change their system
