They keep it more quiet now
They don’t announce everything like they did in the past
A fighter could pop and just sit out quietly for extended period
Exactly. Many times, the injury stuff, taking an athlete out for a year. For example, Jiri Prochazka "worst shoulder injury that was initially believed to take him out forever" and literally 2 months later, he is "I'm coming!!" ... Hill's leg injury when playing f*** basketball which he said he is very used to... JJ's shoulder injury before the Miocic fight (maybe, he was tested positive vs Gane). Du Plessis getting injured weeks before the first fight vs Izzy, fighting meh vs Strickland and then when fighting Izzy, looking way bigger than before, way more 20000% pressure, not fatiguing...
That Sean's O Malley too when he looked like a monster and KO'd Aljo almost like a punch to the head when Aljo was trying to shoot... Volk being very even against Max, then "going to Thailand for training" as 32 yo and coming back like a totally different Volk, who demolished Max, even tho she doesn't favor him and neither does a Thailand training. He just took his already high stamina to another level, as well as his pain tolerance. Same when he fought Islam, being a +300 underdog, and being the only fighter to get on top of Islam and landing ground and pound in the final moments of the fight. Like, many times Volk would expose himself to hard knees from Islam, who'd land clean in his face... Volk was even playing around, like touching his face to see whether there was blood and making that "nice try" expression, while Islam was just getting more and more afraid by realizing he was figuring a monster and needed to survive the clock to win...
That's also why Volk was injured for many months with a broken hand and called to fight Islam... Ppl say Volk was too humble not to say anything about how the short notice fight was bad for him, while that was actually a no-enhanced Volk...
Alex Pereira is one of the few ones who don't seem to be in any kind of those more hardcore gills like earlier Volk, Jiri, Jamahal, JJ (vs Gane), since he'd basically never be kept of a main event, was given the option to fight JJ or Tom and not take the Ankalaev fight — though he chose to give every guy in the division what they deserve and he said Ankalalev sure deserved that. And he isn't kept away like fighters who have a huge injury and just aren't the same after coming back... Being away from the usual substances end up changing their aura, tbh. But someone active, without an injury that kept him out for long, like Alex, is likely one of the fighters who are clean. Tom Aspinall as another one too.
Problem tho is that it seems those fighters have exact instances they need to be under testing, and then they can have a calendar off the pool. JJ vs Miocic was tested when the agents went there that time. Now, there's nothing indicating JJ is within commitment to not use his energy drinks... That's why though JJ kept being the best, because even against legit tough opponents when off cycle (no one in their mid deny a Stipe Miocic, only 5 years older, as ring rusty as Jones and more used to HW and in a very good shape) he still withe wins in an uninamously agreed fight, like vs OSP and Reyes or, like now, he dominated another big threat...
