Brock Lesnar’s inclusion on the UFC 200 card has thrust him into the pool of fighters that are tested by the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA). One would think that on the surface, this seems completely fair.
Except typically, the UFC and USADA require a four-month notice period before a fighter steps into the octagon. During this four-month period the fighter can be tested for performance enhancing drugs. This process means that fighters are completely clean of all performance enhancing drugs and feel no benefits from such drugs while fighting.
Due to a technicality in a ruling, Lesnar has been granted an exemption from this four-month period. So, while he can still be tested for performance enhancing drugs over the course of the next four weeks prior to UFC 200, he has not necessarily had to be clean from them over the last four months.
Lesnar said he contacted White about three months ago. That means that Lesnar has had three months to be clean of steroids and should have been tested for at least those three months – there is no excuse.
This means that Lesnar could feasibly have come off steroids in time to be clean for the current four week period leading up to UFC 200, and it would also mean that he could still feel the benefits and positive effects of such steroids during his fight against Mark Hunt. Realistically Lesnar could hypothetically be clean for a four-week period and still feel the benefits of steroids inside the octagon.
You might think it is narrow minded of me to assume that Brock Lesnar is taking steroids. To that, I would like to say that I am not assuming that at all. I am merely saying that there is more than enough reason to test him in the same vain that everyone else is tested. Let me give you some insight as to why I think this.
1) In 2001, Lesnar was arrested for illegal possession and trafficking of steroids. While the felony charge was dropped and Lesnar was cleared four months later, the police suspicion was there. This in itself should be enough to warrant the four-month drug testing period that USADA subject all UFC fighters to.
2) Lesnar knew that he was going to fight in the octagon for longer than four weeks. This means that both he and the UFC decided to withhold announcing that fact to USADA so that he would only get tested over a four-week period.
3) Lesnar is currently contract to the WWE, a company that has synonymously been linked to steroid use among its employees. In 1992 Vince McMahon, the CEO of, what was known as the World Wrestling Federation at the time, was accused of steroid distribution. After a trial he was eventually exonerated but there was ample evidence against him. Steroids have also been key factors in the sudden deaths of Eddie Guerrero in 2005 while he was working for the company and have also been linked as attributing factors to then WWE superstar, Chris Benoit, and his 2007 double-murder suicide involving his wife and son.
According to Lesnar, this is the first time he will be fully healthy in the octagon, as all of his last bouts were fought while he was suffering from diverticulitis. In his words this is the best he has ever felt. If that’s the case, then why is it that he need not be tested for the mandatory four month period?
“Dana white did not call me up for this. I made the phone call.” Said Lesnar. Well if that is the case, then Lesnar should have had to adhere to USADA’s drug tests for four months.
Two arguments could be made against my points. The first being that Brock Lesnar is such a huge name that he should get special treatment. I call this the ‘He’s Brock Lesnar’ argument.
This cannot be seen as a legitimate argument as just last month Conor McGregor was pushed off the card for UFC 200 because he did not adhere to the UFC’s protocol. Dana White took the stance that no one should be bigger than the business or the way they do things.
This stance is a very respectable one; but now the UFC can be painted hypocrites as this is exactly what they are allowing Brock Lesnar to do – skip protocol. If the McGregor saga taught us anything, it’s that the UFC is not willing to make exceptions for even the biggest names. Well, so we thought.
I am a fan of the UFC, I am a huge fan of the WWE, but this ruling is making a mockery of both businesses. WWE say they test their superstars for all types of steroids, if that were the case then why would Brock Lesnar, the WWE or the UFC, even think to hesitate in allowing a four-month testing period?
It makes no sense. This exemption thus makes a joke out of World Wrestling Entertainment’s wellness policy and UFC’s drug testing.
Was Mark Hunt exempt from testing for four months? No. Mark Hunt has therefore been subjugated to different rules and restrictions in the lead up to this fight.
While I still think that Mark Hunt will knock Lesnar out, it still does not stand to reason that one athlete should be given a completely different set of rules pertaining to drug testing leading up to competition. It is laughable.
I am an avid fan of professional wrestling, and I love mixed martial arts and the UFC. I want more than anything to see Brock Lesnar fight Mark Hunt, but it has to be fought under the right circumstances.
Lesnar’s exemption from the protocols of drug testing devalues the UFC, it devalues the WWE and it devalues Brock Lesnar. He should not be on the card at UFC 200 without proper drug testing from USADA over the mandatory four-month period.
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