The UFC’s relationship with drug testing has been an interesting one over the years. For a long time, the promotion maintained that making sure fighters were ‘clean’ was the job of athletic commissions, and not the promotion. Fighters got tested just before and just after their bouts, and as long as those tests were clear, everything was hunky-dory.
That all changed in 2015, when the world’s largest MMA promotion announced their partnership with the private drug testing company USADA. And in the years since, athletes have been subject to a year-round schedule of random visits from USADA agents, collecting samples to ensure a level playing field.