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Brock Lesnar: USADA Strikes Again

July 18, 2016 | Posted by Dan Plunkett
Image Credit: ESPN

The removal of Jon Jones from UFC 200 just 72 hours before show time was a hit that slammed into the UFC’s gut like a kick from a prime Mirko Cro Cop. Plans for the landmark event had already changed plenty enough. The UFC initially earmarked Ronda Rousey for the grand stage, but her upset loss to Holly Holm set her toward a longer path, overshooting the big show.

Then the spot was Conor McGregor’s. His opponent was the only question, and that would largely hinge on the result of his UFC 196 fight with Nate Diaz. With a win, would he fight welterweight champion Robbie Lawler, or opt for a returning Georges St-Pierre in perhaps the sport’s first true megafight? A loss was thought to mean a return to featherweight, but when it occurred and the pay-per-view returns came in, a rematch with Diaz was a clear direction. When McGregor didn’t care to fulfil the UFC’s promotional obligations for the show, the UFC chose to remove him from the fight and scrambled for a new main event.

They lucked out with Jones and Daniel Cormier, with Jones coming out of his April bout well enough to fight in July and Cormier recovering from injury on time for the card. With Jones’ potential failure, they were forced to scramble, but still pulled Anderson Silva out of their hat. In a different time and under normal circumstances, Cormier vs. Silva would have been a super fight for the ages, but it was in 2016 with Silva being announced as the opponent half-a-day before weigh-ins.

Because of the changes, the clear highlight of UFC 200 was the image of Brock Lesnar having his arm raised. Lesnar returned from a four-and-a-half-year absence from competition to defeat a top-10 heavyweight. It’s a remarkable accomplishment even in the notoriously weak heavyweight division, an accomplishment a special kind of athlete could achieve.

On July 15, USADA informed the UFC that a sample collected from Brock Lesnar on June 28 had been flagged for a potential anti-doping violation.

PED allegations have tailed Lesnar even before he made a living in either MMA or pro wrestling, but he had never failed a test. He had been randomly tested prior to his match with Alistair Overeem, and was likely subject to testing during his brief NFL stint as well. That history surely played a factor into the UFC granting him an exemption to the rule that fighters returning from retirement must endure four months of USADA testing before competing. That exemption allowed him to compete at UFC 200.

In hindsight, maybe that exemption was a bad idea and put Mark Hunt, his opponent at UFC 200, at an unnecessary risk due to a potential competitive disadvantage. On the other hand, Lesnar passed all of his tests prior to the June 28 sample, so even if his return had been announced four months prior to the event, things may not have played out any differently.

Details at this point are still scant. We know when the test took place, we know when USADA was informed of the potential violation, and we know that Lesnar passed earlier tests. We still don’t know the substance – past that it wasn’t a recreational drug failure since they aren’t considered in out of competition tests – and we still don’t know Lesnar’s defense. The latter two points are key.

We’ve already seen Tim Means and Yoel Romero fail tests, claim they were caused by tainted supplements, present proof, and have potential two-year suspensions cut to a more manageable six months. Until we know more details, it’s difficult to speculate what this could mean for the UFC and Lesnar, since Lesnar may not have fought again for another six months or longer, if ever again.

Jones’ situation is similarly unknown; however, it’s clearer as to what is being lost in the immediate term. He missed the biggest payday of his career, and his absence cost the show a significant amount of pay-per-view buys. Even if he comes away with only a six month timeout, he will miss two fights and the possibility of headlining UFC’s debut in New York City in November. There may not be another UFC 200 type show for him to headline, and there will never be another Madison Square Garden debut.

For all the criticism that is levied upon the UFC, both rightly and wrongly, they deserve praise for adopting a USADA program that costs millions of dollars and could cost millions more with the suspensions of key fighters. Sure, they resisted year-round random testing programs long after it was clear they needed one, but beginning a program that will so clearly hurt your bottom line is difficult to undertake. They didn’t want to lose fights with Jones, BJ Penn, Romero, Mirko Cro Cop, Chad Mendes, and perhaps Brock Lesnar, but losing out on big fights and big fighters is the cost of cleaning up a sport that’s had a problem for a long time.

Dan Plunkett has covered MMA for 411Mania since 2008. You can reach him by email at [email protected] and follow him on Twitter @Dan_Plunkett.

article topics :

Brock Lesnar, UFC 200, USADA, Dan Plunkett