Dana White stated at a media session on Thursday that the UFC is doing away with plans for its out of competition testing due to the issues it faced with Cung Le. In his explanation, White blames the lawyers for the drug testing issues with Le.
ESPN reported in August that the UFC was furthering its anti-doping effort by potentially partnering with an independent agency in implementing a random, out-of-competition drug-testing program by the end of 2014. This was to be a way of ensuring fairness throughout the ranks of the UFC and to ensure that no one was using any banned substances. It did not happen. Instead, on the first day of 2015, we see a reverse of course.
At the scrum, White indicated that Zuffa was not capable of such a program. Instead, Zuffa will help fund commissions to conduct additional testing. (via Bleacher Report). White went on the blame the legal team for blowing the Cung Le testing. Another issue was the change of suspension from 9 months to 12 months.
Payout Perspective:
In this instance, the lawyers take the blame for either botching the drug testing policy in Macau or the subsequent measures after the discovery of Le’s alleged failed drug test. Or both. Regardless, the question remains what the UFC will do when there is no commission such as the situation in Macau. Does it hire an independent agency at that time? And how much money does the UFC give to a commission and is there any conflict in this happening?
This move does not look like one that supports a policy that is strict against using performance enhancing drugs. Unless the UFC were to retain an independent agency to conduct its tests, it would appear that the company has done little to ensure that all of its athletes are free of substances that would give them an unfair advantage.
Stating its cung le’s reason for the antitrust is a diversionary tactic by dw….saying its not antitrust but a disgruntled current employee….divide and conquer….wont work hahahahaha
I see zero issues here. The ufc was never in position to implement a policy that was effective and credible to the public. Their recent attempt was commendable but clearl was pointless as the fighter was clearly guilty and challenged the testing and beat it using loopholes.
Out of season testing is always going to be difficult. What keeps a fighter from going off the grid to juice and train for a few months before a fight? What keeps a fighter from juicing to the max before resigning a contact? Whose responsibility and jurisdiction is he in then? The UFC would again have no authority to even test them. Then you have the issue of fighting g rising to the UFC with PEs cashing in a fading out. There is no way to make the sport or the UFC clean if it’s just a UFC policy. There has to be testing at every level and the only ones who can do that are the commissions at the state level or a newly created national or global sanctioning authority.
At any rate, the UFC needs all the fighters it can get in 2015. I think they’d rather have juiced up ones than suspended guys.
Newsworthy: UFC 182 not sold out, but Dana White expects 750,000 pay-per-view buys
http://www.mmafighting.com/2015/1/1/7479639/ufc-182-not-sold-out-but-dana-white-expects-750000-pay-per-view-buys
“Tickets are still available for Saturday night’s event at the MGM Grand Garden Arena for one of the best-on-paper fights the company has ever put together, which hasn’t gone unnoticed by at least one of the competitors.
“Jon and I would fight in an empty arena,” Cormier said Thursday. “So it doesn’t really matter.”
Fight between Weidman and Vitor moved to Brasil?
@JF – we’ll have something on that too. Based on the price increase of $60 for most carriers and DW’s estimation of 750K PPV buys this PPV would gross $45M. Even after everyone takes their cut, that’s a great start to 2015.
@michael – I’m sure its sarcasm but I think UFC would rather see a Weidman squash in LA rather than moving the event.
750,000 buys??? Ahahahaha
Nice jokes
Not sold out hahahahaha…really bad hahaha….plenty of comp tickets for b.s. and d and all ufc fanboys hahaha
750k for UFC 182?
When pigs fly…
That card is lucky if it breaks 500k, the momentum for that fight was back in September, the Buzz it was generating back then is nothing compared to right now. Since when have January events done well? tickets still unsold? 500k would be a success.
Funny,! Lesner and CM punk can’t pass drug tests hence the bullshit from the UFC !! who the fuck are you kidding Dana!!!
The problem with Ticket sales imo is Jon Jones has never been promoted in Vegas. He hasn’t fought in Vegas in 5 years and that was before he was champ. Except a fight in Denver, 7 of his last 8 fights have been on the east coast or Canada. They knew he wasn’t a big mainstream draw and used him on grass roots events that typically don’t get a huge star. For this reason the ticket sales in Vegas were going to be a hard sell. But the rest of the country is interested in the rivalry and those east coast shows will pay off in PPV sales not ticket sales 3,000 miles away. So I wouldn’t be surprised to see the PPV be much more successful than the Gate.
Logical, completely illogical. This fight should do around 600k buys. It is a big fight with two big names that hate each other and either could win. Ticket sales don’t always tell the story of ppv buys.