The UFC no longer works with USADA, but veterans Chris Weidman, Jorge Masvidal, and Dustin Poirier can still remember how difficult it occasionally was to deal with the drug-testing agency.
From 2015-2023, USADA handled testing the UFC’s roster of fighters, using a system of checks and balances that involved random tests and athletes regularly having to update the agency on their whereabouts. That could lead to some awkward moments, which Weidman, Masvidal, and Poirier discussed on a recent episode of their Deep Waters podcast.
“I was golfing one time and so they had to come to the golf course and they waited for me at the turn,” Weidman said. “I had to go take pee and blood, and my boys had to wait for me to do it, because once they see you, you can’t leave their eyesight.
“They have to see you within an hour of calling you. Once they get in contact with you, you have like an hour, maybe an hour and a half.”
The former UFC middleweight champion also recalled getting dinged by USADA when he was in the middle of a mountain getaway and forgot to update his location. Despite his best attempts to make it home, Weidman was out of luck following a frantic journey.
“I failed a drug test once—I didn’t fail it, but I got a warning because I went to my mountain house, which is two hours away, and I didn’t put it on my USADA app that I was there, and I got a call that they were at my house,” Weidman said. “So now I had to fly home. I’m flying there, but I hit some traffic. The guy left and that was a warning because I didn’t get tested within the two-hour frame. I’m like, ‘Bro.’”
Even when Weidman was where he was supposed to be, the timing of a USADA visit almost spoiled one of the biggest moments of his career. Weidman was scheduled to fight Yoel Romero at UFC 205, the promotion’s first-ever event in New York City. A proud Long Island native, Weidman was determined to make the November 2016 card despite facing a multitude of obstacles.
“Another good one is when I was fighting Yoel Romero, they tested me a million times because everyone was worried about Yoel being on stuff, so I’m getting tested,” Weidman said. “Three and a half weeks before the fight, I ended up injuring my knee, I had to get surgery. So I get a surgery, but I don’t tell the UFC, because if the UFC finds out I have that—And this is the first event ever in New York, I’m like, I’m fighting, I don’t give a shit.
“So I do the IV, I come back from the hospital, I’m on the painkillers and everything, and I have the band on my arm from the IV and you’re not allowed to get IVs, so all of a sudden doors are getting knocked on, ringing the doorbell. USADA. So I’m pretending like I just didn’t have a surgery. I had to undo all the shit on my leg. It was a f*cking nightmare and I was so paranoid that I was going to get in trouble, but it ended up being good.”
Masvidal shared a more amusing story, one that turned a routine drug test into a prolonged and somewhat awkward day for everyone involved.
“They had me after training one time, and I had done the whole training session,” Masvidal said. “I went in the sauna and everything, like, 15-20 minutes after I’m done they show up and I’m like, ‘You guys are going to be with me all day, because I’ll tell you right now, I lost eight or nine pounds in this training session, I’m not pissing for a while, so you guys are going to have to chill with me.’
“I’m at Top Team, they followed me all the way to Miami. Take them everywhere with me, eating, drinking. They’re like, ‘You still don’t got to go to the bathroom?’ ‘You can’t rush this, brother. Just when it happens. You’ve got to get me before practice, don’t ever come after practice.’”
As for Poirier, he couldn’t believe it when what would have been a home visit turned into agents having to meet him under less private circumstances.
“One time USADA called me when I was buying a truck,” Poirier said. “I was at the dealership sitting down signing papers. They call me, like, no way I can get to my house in an hour right now, so they met me at the dealership. Urine and blood, at the dealership.”
Whether USADA’s involvement was a net positive for the business or not, all three fighters can agree there were times when they threatened to lose their patience with testers.
“Another time they came, they knocked on my door, it was, like, 6 a.m. on Super Bowl Sunday,” Poirier said. “I was mad.”
“6 a.m. on a Sunday, they’ve done that to me, like, twice,” Masvidal said. “I wanted to kill them.”
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VIDEO STEW
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SOCIAL MEDIA BOUILLABAISSE
Honor.
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This didn’t even win Fight of the Night, lol.
The Sean Woodson experience.
Ageless.
On to the next one.
FIGHT ANNOUNCEMENTS
Norma Dumont (13-3) vs. Ailin Perez (13-2); UFC Vegas 121, Sept. 26
Vanessa Demopoulos (11-8) vs. Yazmin Jauregui (11-2); UFC Vegas 121, Sept. 26
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