As the
Ultimate Fighting Championship’s partnership with the United
States Anti-Doping Agency comes to an end in December 2023, the Las
Vegas-based promotion already has another deal with a sport drug
testing organization in place.
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In a Thursday press conference, UFC Chief Business Officer Hunter
Campbell and Senior Vice President of Athlete Health and
Performance Jeff Novitzky revealed that the UFC will be partnering
with Drug Free Sport International for their anti-doping program
starting Jan 1. 2024.
While many wondered what route the promotion would take in terms of
drug testing following the less than amicable split with USADA, it
is clear the UFC intends to stick to a third-party independent
organization overseeing their anti-doping program.
“Drug Free Sport International currently handles collection duties
for the following professional sports leagues, they have 325
long-term tenured sports clients including the NFL, NCAA, Major
League Baseball, NBA, WNBA, NASCAR, horse racing integrity and
welfare unit, PGA, LPGA, FIFA and Crossfit. They actually help out
with some drug testing with various National Anti-Doping
Authorities throughout the world and various sports federations.
They virtually collect samples for everybody,” said Novitzky.
Furthermore, the senior vice president of athlete health and
performance announced that Dr. Daniel Eichner will serve as the new
science advisor overseeing testing and results.
“Dr. Dan Eichner runs the Sports Medicine Testing and Research
Laboratory in Salt Lake City, also known as SMRTL, one of two
United States [World Anti-Doping Agency] accredited anti-doping
laboratories, the highest accreditation standard in anti-doping in
the world… He will be our science advisor. He’s going to direct
the program on test distribution, smarter testing planning, more
efficient testing planning. He will evaluate the testing results in
the program and make recommendations to our independent
administrator.”
Additionally, Novitzky also announced that George Piro, a retired
special agent-in-charge from the Federal Bureau of Investigation,
will now serve as the independent administrator of the new
anti-doping program. Piro is widely recognized for being the lead
interrogator who questioned Saddam Hussein following his 2003
capture by American forces in Iraq.
Novitzky made it a point to emphasize the independent nature of the
role Piro is set to assume stating:
“George will make every — and I stress every — final decision in
the program. That authority will be his and his alone.”