In this latest edition of our Talk ‘n’ Shoot podcast, we delve into the recently announced UFC Athlete Marketing and Development Program, the crux of which is a PED/drug policy that is the strictest of any major sport.
The UFC has formed a partnership with the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency to administer year round random drug tests to the athletes under UFC contract. With more than 600 athletes the UFC is signing up for more than 2700 tests in the first year of the program, which roughly amounts to four random tests per athlete, per year.
Considering the cost of logistics and staff to administer the testing, and the UFC is taking on a bill that will probably be in excess of $10,000,000 a year, so the UFC is putting their money where their mouths are and actively stepping up to do something about a hot button issue that has been a major topic of discussion throughout the MMA world.
But where does this leave the rest of the MMA world? Will Bellator, the number two company in MMA adapt a similar policy? If they do, how will smaller promotions operate and follow suit? And how will this news impact the world of boxing, where certainly big promotions like Top Rank and Golden Boy have the potential to fund something similar but will probably not even acknowledge it’s existence.
The UFC has addressed their own in-house problem with PEDS, and as a business they needed to do that since the company had gotten a lot of bad press, but where does this leave the rest of the sport?
