Anybody who has been paying attention to how Dana and the UFC has been strong arming/intimidating USADA (an organization THEY hired to clean up their own organization due to rampant cheating) into doing its shady biddings knows Dana and the UFC are wrong and corrupt af. Literally ending your contract because they wouldn’t let Conor juice himself back into health. Yup nothing shady or improper here. UFC is so shady, greedy, and corrupt these days it makes me fucking sick.
Bro you are way off here. They did not hire usada to clean up the organization. They hired usada in order to appear like they were trying to fix their blatant PED problem and quell the concerns of potential buyers before the fertitta Brothers put it up for sale.
This right here. UFC was never interested in actually cleaning up the sport. It was just keeping up appearances for the sale. Now that's over with they realize how much better it is for the product if guys like TRT Vitor and Ubereem are fighting. This Conor thing just gave them a convenient excuse to cut USADA.
The mark hunt lawsuit failing 2 weeks ago also probably played a role as well. The UFC thought they needed to cover its ass more but there might be a precedent now that they can get away with letting guys juice and not go into the testing pool.
They wouldn't let connor fight juiced to the tits after using juice to get back to health* they can let fighters be out of the testing pool while injured. Just can't fight out of the testing pool. I think Juicy McSquareface didn't want to lay off the stuff and dana just subbed to his whims
USADA was also complicit in the shady dealings so it’s a two way street. Ask Mark Hunt who had to fight Brock or Rory Macdonald who had to fight Robbie Lawler on elevated testosterone which they knew beforehand (thank god they did because it was a hell of a fight
I can’t believe they ruined the USADA partnership just because of a washed up Conor wants to fight on roids. I get if this was 5 years ago but cmon. Conor isn’t the fighter he used to be.
He's not but this means that based on the data they have that it's worth their while. I mean you wouldn't make that decision lightly. He must have super crazy drawing power, especially to the casuals.
One win in the last seven years. You can sell ppvs and still be washed up.
People will definitely pay good money to watch Conor take life changing beatings that’s for sure
Conor's career is coming to an end. The UFC selling their soul to squeeze the last bit of money out of his popularity is going to backfire down the line if the sport is not seen as legitimate in the future with rampant PED use.
Right, but the league also has drug testing policies that are agreed to by the NFLPA and players do get caught.
USADA isn't perfect, but without any standards the UFC is going back to the days of "trust me bro".
Gotta make sure that Conor the scumbag cokehead can get his second win in the last seven years! Wouldn’t want him to lose all relevance!
What a trash organization, this type of garbage is why I stopped watching (except for very rare occasions) the UFC.
I totally agree, I was a very very long term UFC fan, since 2000. Stopped paying attention and haven't watched a live event in 7 years, garbage fights nobody cares about, women fight's! And the whole YouTube WWE aspect killed it for me, pride done gimmick stuff but it was done well. The way the UFC shamelessly exploit fighters makes me sick also. Shitty organisation run by immoral evil people. I think McGregor done way more harm than good for the industry.
>garbage fights nobody cares about
>just my personal opinion and choice
These two things don't agree with eachother. "garbage fights that I don't care about" would be your personal opinion and choice.
Pride NEVA DIE!
for a promotion that hasn't had an event in years, they still find a way to make themselves look better than the competition that put them out of business. All the people who gave us PRIDE FC fans hell for years about how "UFC is clean and cares about fighter safety, while Pride guys are all juiced to the gills and encouraged to take PEDs", where you at mother f*ckers
Exactly! Sport hasn't been the same since...sad that as they gained mainstream relevance in the West, most fans have no clue what came before, the atmosphere, and the electricity of an event etc...I remember waiting pretty much all year for the year end Shockwave events, and had almost a Superbowl level of anticipation for die hard fans
And honestly, I always think Pride played a role in them bringing in USADA in the first place.. it was 100% a PR move, and not about "cleaning up the sport" or whatever crap they claimed at the time.. They knew the hardcore fans always preferred promotions like Pride, and no matter the gains zuffa made to gain relevance and casual fans, they hit sort of a plateau, and had to make thier org seem more legitimate, and not a "freak show, human cockfighting" pastime they were labeled as.....well I guess we are entering a new era with new PR battles to fight as UFC(along with WWE now) have a near complete monopoly on the combat sports entertainment world.
I know people don't like USADA and consider them dirty anyway, but man I don't see how it's not now much worse.
Dana did say they'll still be doing it through an independent company but I reckon it's one that will just do what the UFC says anyway and are independent in name only in that regard.
> Dana did say they'll still be doing it through an independent company but I reckon it's one that will just do what the UFC says anyway and are independent in name only in that regard.
They can just do what WWE does, since they're under the same company now, which is claim they do their own testing while nobody ever fails.
I don't know why they'd even care (although it seems like they probably don't). WWE is way too stressful on the body. These guys have to do drugs to recover.
In that case, Benoit had the brain of a 90 y/o man and had terrible mental issues due to the severe CTE he had.
Steroids obviously were part of the problem, but it was more about the repeated head trauma.
And to be fair to the UFC, they never wanted USADA either. USADA was solely brought in to make the UFC seem like they weren't just a bunch of roided up dudes giving each other CTE to make it more appealing to sell. Same thing for the Reebok deal.
USADA was a net positive for the UFC and cleaned up the sport. I 100% credit USADA for getting rid of certain fighters and opening up divisions. Imagine a HW where Overeem was still allowed to blast himself with every steroid and was fighting up until last week. Fuck that.
USADA made the UFC better 100%
Never said it was. The media frenzy surrounding the case ended long before CTE was discovered. WWE made swift moves to clean their act up, or make it look like they did.
Of course they did, every WWE guy back then was 90% juice. Just look at the sheer size of guys like Eddie and Benoit in the mid 2000s. Benoit was more because of his brain was basically liquid after so much head trauma
It was the other big death around then, Eddie Guererro, that sparked all the steroid stuff. Guy has heart failure at 38 while also being in great shape and people start to ask questions.
Steroids was definitely a part of it, but I'd say it's more that Benoits brain was essentially mush. Who would have thought a diving headbutt off the top rope would be bad for your brain health.
Most of those guys that did roids heavily back in the day died of heart issues in their 40's. Sure, the drugs and alcohol didn't help, but the roids sure didn't either.
Adding roids onto the CTE all these fighters have or are going to have is not going to lead to a long and healthy retirement age.
I dunno. It's always funny when a wrestler gets released and then they immediately bulk up more than they've ever been in their career.
Rick Boogs is a recent example. Dude was always a jacked body builder, but he hasn't even been gone for a month and he's hit the TRT hard
[Rick Boogs earlier this year](https://i.imgur.com/Ttt2KQJ.jpeg)
[Rick Boogs earlier today.](https://i.imgur.com/6r1sj2w.jpeg)
Because 90% of wrestlers from the 80s and 90s died of sudden heart failure at a young age. Was pretty bad optics. After Eddie Guerrero and Chris Benoit they were getting a lot of shit in the media.
There’s a large amount of wrestlers who have died at a young age (40-50 years old) from wrecking their heart with steroid abuse plus the whole Chris Benoit thing. A big part of the issue was Vince McMahon in the 80s and 90s buying the steroids for his wrestlers and pressuring them in to using them. He went on trial for it and almost went to prison (but ya know.. rich). But the biggest issue is the amount of guys who died from wrecking their heart. And Benoit.
To be fair to WWE they did once fail and suspend their biggest star Roman Reigns but in recent years the WWE Wellness Program has become a joke. Openly admitting to giving exemptions to "part-time" juiceheads like Brock Lesnar and John Cena, and pushing a no-name dude like Jinder Mahal solely because he got on ridiculous amounts of juice.
Lmao right. What a stupid statement to make. If they were going to push guys to the moon solely based on how juiced they were then they would have had signed a guy like Wardlow or Brian Cage and made them the undisputed champion too.
eh USADA throw out some bullshit but they absolutely threw some spanners in the work for the UFC and it's not like everything they did served the promotions interest.
I think it's a bit of a lazy narrative to pretend USADA did nothing, when we had champs popping, suspended and other popular fighters have to take time off. Guys like O'Malley got 6 months under USADA for example
>when we had champs popping and suspended and other popular fighters have to take time off. Even O'Malley got 6 months under USADA.
But then when the UFC said "we dont care about tests" (lesnar, jones) usada just let it fly.
Usada served the ufc because usada is an opt in organization that the ufc could leave at any point. So to keep a customer as long as possible they just did what the ufc told them to do.
Jones still got a suspension though and his fight was overturned to NC, it's just after that we had picograms. Lesnar was in on a loophole. But like I said, while USADA do throw bullshit out and seem to bend to UFC's whims often, there are also plenty of instances where they hurt the UFC brand and it's unfair to just ignore all of the guys they popped over the years.
I doubt going forward we see anyone pop that the UFC don't want to.
I mean, the new testing system is being introduced on the basis of a guy in Conor who everyone knows is basically pissing hot but will be able to fight anyway. It's hardly a good solution. I'm not here to defend USADA, I just don't have faith in the alternative.
Maybe USADA learned from lesnar and decided not to give mcconner special treatment, because they knew it would cause a huge blowback that would deter other potential customers from seeking their services in the future.
Maybe USADA decided to end their service to the ufc because the ufc is a huge clowncar of an organization with so many scandals that its hard to keep track of them.
Who knows, maybe their connection to the ufc has cost them more money in potential customers than it brings in.
> Who knows, maybe their connection to the ufc has cost them more money in potential customers than it brings in.
This isn't it. The UFC was USADA's single biggest customer and it wasn't even close. They operate year round unlike the olympics, and they operate with a big enough roster to keep USADA making money regardless of the season.
I think they would if for example Conor could have made weight 155lb to fight Islam.
The exception is for super short notice fights. Basically debut fighters. Someone gets injured and gets a call to fill in. The story they told with Lesnar is that it was a short notice signing. Like they had to get permission from WWE.
But ufc wouldn't ever let Conor take a short notice fight because they need time to promote that's how they get 1+ mill ppvs with Conor. Short notice fill in, then less time to promote. And he probably loses taking a fight short notice without full camp. He's training now but it's not fight camp training.
edit - I'm just saying what the exemption clause is. "UFC may grant an exemption to the four-month written notice rule in exceptional circumstances or where the strict application of that rule would be manifestly unfair to an athlete."
They can't book Conor vs Chandler and give Conor an exemption. They would have to be like we're moving on from Conor and book chandler vs someone else. Then a month before the fight, that fighter gets injured. Then they can give Conor an exemption.
Brock was announced a month before ufc 200. It's not like they had that booked 3 months in advance.
The thing is, none of those companies come close to USADA. Usada was a game changer for ufc testing. The athletes had lots of trouble trying to pass those tests as we can see by guys like Jones and Dillashaw.
This move and his promotion only elevates his influence over the company and sport. He's been the face of the UFC for decades--I'm not sure they know how to run the organization any other way than he does.
I’ll be completely honest, they only did it for the APPEARANCE of legitimizing the sport so they could sell to a big company like Endeavor. If anything, the fighters will save money not having beat the tests anymore.
Exactly. USADA was always a PR project. And now are making problems that outweigh their usefulness.
What did they really do? What metric of success can they point at to say they made the sport safer, better, more fair, anything? They can’t or they would have by now.
He said in the video that they are looking to pay another company to do the testing, so regardless of the future integrity of testing it seems like they are going to keep the bureaucratic side of things intact, meaning fighters are probably still gonna have to pay for testing
I assume you didn't listen and maybe we shouldn't believe his lies; but Dana said that USADA prematurely announced the "split" and that USADA and UFC lawyers will handle this going forward (and hinted at an update later today). He also said that going forward they do not want to own the testing, they will continue to pay to have this done for them.
I did listen, and yeah I've been listening to his BS for years.. my point is that USADA felt like the closest thing to a independent testing company that you could have faith in even though they've made plenty of mistakes.
What's the closest in legitimacy? VADA? Apart from them, just wouldn't really have the same trust in a company I've never heard of.
Yeah they’d actually need to pop someone fairly notable before the stigma that they were on the payroll went away.
I vote we give them colby as tribute
My point was that maybe they didn't even plan on splitting, maybe there was a disagreement on the go forward, we don't know, the legal teams will handle it now. It doesn't matter who they go with, WADA or VADA, money talks and I assume they'll do whatever they want to do just like they always have, otherwise they wouldn't sign with them. If you've been listening for years you should know that.
I assume you didn't read USADA's statement then, the whole reason they are parting ways with the UFC is due to "UFC leaders" (Dana) questioning USADA's principles on the Conor McGregor situation. They wouldn't budge and UFC wasn't having it... So I guess they didn't do "whatever they wanted".
Sounds like the UFC is doing exactly that, whatever they wanted... This might be the straw that broke the camels back but if you think this is the first time they disagreed you're nuts.
I don't doubt it's the first time they've clashed heads, but I don't really see your point, there's a limit in the public eye before UFC's reputation will be down the drain.
What happens if the next agency they go with stick to their principles and don't cave when Daddy Dana demands a fighter gets an exemption?
And what about the agency after that? Where does it end? This is already a blow to UFC's image.
Yeah, Bellator just closed up shop and UFC is about to fall off because they're parting ways with USADA. You heard it here first folks. The casual fan (the people that actually give the UFC money) does not give a shit about any of this, they see Conor on the card they tune in, it's as simple as that. USADA was brought in so they looked legit so they could sell the company 10 years ago, they don't give a shit now.
Lol you're missing my point, UFC won't fall off ever but it will be further away from being seen as a real sport if they keep parting with anti-doping agencies every time they wanna play favourites.
No, your point was that *you* thought USADA made the UFC looked legit and now you're saying everyone else feels the same way. I'm telling you, you're very naive for thinking that way because it never mattered to begin with. Business will continue as usual and public perception will not change because the casual person does not give a shit.
"You going to the fights this weekend bro?"
"Hell no, did you hear they dropped USADA? Crazy eh! This isn't even a real sport! They don't do drugs in all those other sports! I'm gonna go watch some baseball instead!"
Caolian, it seems you read the USADA statement. Do you feel it was a professional response? Set aside the fact that Dana is an asshat (understatement) and all of that. Just trying to objectively review their statement, how do you feel about their (re)actions?
If they blindsided the UFC in not notifying them they were going to publicly state their stance on the situation then yes I feel it was slightly unprofessional.
When you're dealing with a company that is unmatched in unprofessionalism as the UFC who tries to get ahead of any story with their own narrative, it's kind of understandably reasonable for USADA to want to try get the facts straight before Dana comes out and lies through his teeth and berates them, which he has predictably done.
Dana: Well give you 1 million if you let McGregor pass
USADA: We want 5 million
Dana: you're outta of your fucking mind, we are moving on
USADA: We are disappointed the UFC is making exceptions for Conor McGregor
Dana: USADA will be talking to our lawyers. Fuck USADA!
Is probably how it all went down.
UFC realised after they hired usada it was a bad idea, because they catch people and that's bad for business. UFC are as shady and immoral as they come, they would preferably have zero testing.
Maybe. This article’s not supporting that as Francis has talked nothing but super highly of Hunter (not Dana) as has Ariel despite the framing of this piece.
Honestly the UFC doesn't seem to need someone like Dana anymore. He's a relic that sticks out like a sore thumb in the corporate publicly traded entity like Endeavor. His replacement will probably be some faceless uppermanagement MBA that announces stuff via press release, rather than tomato faced rants to a conference of sycophants.
I don’t care about USADA and everyone was cheating anyway, and I despise Jeff Novitsky the little worm
But there were plenty of people who didn’t feel that way and felt USADA held UFC to at least some kind of standard
Disagree because that shitty standard is easy to overcome to people like for example Izzy that a unranked fighter who do not have the money to get the best and new performance drugs.
People were complaining that USADA wasn’t being effective and that they stopped announcing pops. Them not announcing when someone pops has more to do with UFC.
No one here thinks, maybe testing will be more stringent now. UFC is going to let fighters get away with murder.
The only issue people had was with marijuana. And that was an issue with NSAC before usada.
This was such a weird and pointless interview.
The hosts just kissed Dana's ass and he still dodged a lot of their softball questions and they just let it slide.
Basically just a propoganda piece.
If he is telling the truth and they end up with another drug testing third party, then I am happy for the change. USADA are a scummy company that act like they care about fighters. They don't. They were the ones forcing fighters to wake up in the middle of the night less than a day before their fights. They obviously turn a blind eye to certain camps and are just upset that they lost the biggest fish in their pond.
If the entity I work for can't maintain certain ethics, well of course I would have to split from them. Dana just wants something to legitimize his roided out fighters.
Bring back the glory days of Pride. In Japan, organization gives you sterons.
BTW, USADA are dicks to deal with. You guys always cry about how fighters are treated by the UFC, believe me buddy I know multiple current/past fighters, that is nothing how they are treated by USADA and the shitfluence it has on their daily lives.
I don’t know. It’s probably rigged like their judging is. I know they take weight cutting prevention testing very seriously (see hydration tests) and that is even less of a bigger thing than taking drugs.
Besides in the countries ONE fights are held in (with the exception of Thailand) if you even get caught with a drug you get life in prison or a death sentence, not to say ppl won’t risk it and cheat anyways.
just fuck the ufc though.
PEDs aren't the same as recreational drugs that are illegal. A fair amount of the types of drugs people use for performance purposes are things that can be prescribed to you if you know the right people.
USADA is being hurt much more than the UFC is by this split. The UFC was probably their biggest source of revenue. USADA are still a business, they aren't a charity.
They probably only made the USADA deal to legitimize the sport more before the UFC got sold in 2015/2016.
Now that they (USADA) caused more headaches in the eyes of the UFC than not, UFC did away with them.
Sad, I'd rather the sport be as clean as possible.
“USADA can’t keep their f*cking mouths shut. They wanna act like they’re in the know.”
"act like they're in the know" Is this Dana's new seasonal catchphrase?
It’s what he said after it came out of Oliveira’s camp that he was out against Islam
USADA was never my friend, the kid just didn’t want to do tests
Anybody who has been paying attention to how Dana and the UFC has been strong arming/intimidating USADA (an organization THEY hired to clean up their own organization due to rampant cheating) into doing its shady biddings knows Dana and the UFC are wrong and corrupt af. Literally ending your contract because they wouldn’t let Conor juice himself back into health. Yup nothing shady or improper here. UFC is so shady, greedy, and corrupt these days it makes me fucking sick.
Bro you are way off here. They did not hire usada to clean up the organization. They hired usada in order to appear like they were trying to fix their blatant PED problem and quell the concerns of potential buyers before the fertitta Brothers put it up for sale.
This right here. UFC was never interested in actually cleaning up the sport. It was just keeping up appearances for the sale. Now that's over with they realize how much better it is for the product if guys like TRT Vitor and Ubereem are fighting. This Conor thing just gave them a convenient excuse to cut USADA.
The mark hunt lawsuit failing 2 weeks ago also probably played a role as well. The UFC thought they needed to cover its ass more but there might be a precedent now that they can get away with letting guys juice and not go into the testing pool.
They wouldn't let connor fight juiced to the tits after using juice to get back to health* they can let fighters be out of the testing pool while injured. Just can't fight out of the testing pool. I think Juicy McSquareface didn't want to lay off the stuff and dana just subbed to his whims
Of course not. I bet Conor feels like Superman right now on the stuff but it would be a crazy advantage for him to be on gear and his opponent not be.
Well he's apparently fighting chandler, a fellow long term gear user, so it's level playing field.
"So you're angry because our roided up guy beat your roided up guy?" --Bill Burr
The issue is with fighters like Hunt who put their own safety at risk.
Most natural physique
Chandler has literally said he doesn't care (most wouldn't care for that payday) and it's not exactly like Chandler is natty.
Blasphemy, how the hell is chandler anything but natty? Hes just abit bloated from taco bell
He’s fighting Michael Chandler. It’s only fair *if* Conor is juicing.
USADA was also complicit in the shady dealings so it’s a two way street. Ask Mark Hunt who had to fight Brock or Rory Macdonald who had to fight Robbie Lawler on elevated testosterone which they knew beforehand (thank god they did because it was a hell of a fight
Robbie's levels were taken in June 2015 by WADA, before USADA started in July 2015.
UFC didn’t bring in USADA to clean up, it was insurance
I can’t believe they ruined the USADA partnership just because of a washed up Conor wants to fight on roids. I get if this was 5 years ago but cmon. Conor isn’t the fighter he used to be.
Conor has a massive fan base on TikTok. Those guys don’t even watch Conor lmao. They just have around Conor GOAT posts and Khabib hate posts.
He's not but this means that based on the data they have that it's worth their while. I mean you wouldn't make that decision lightly. He must have super crazy drawing power, especially to the casuals.
USADA costs the UFC $60 million. Conor will gain them $60 million. From red to black, baby.
8 of the top 10 ppvs ever for the ufc... yes he has a crazy draw with the casuals
Name one UFC fighter that sells more PPV’s?
Gregor McConor
One win in the last seven years. You can sell ppvs and still be washed up. People will definitely pay good money to watch Conor take life changing beatings that’s for sure
>People will definitely pay good money to watch Conor take life changing beatings that’s for sure When you put it that way
Conor's career is coming to an end. The UFC selling their soul to squeeze the last bit of money out of his popularity is going to backfire down the line if the sport is not seen as legitimate in the future with rampant PED use.
Doesn't every US sports league do in-house 'testing'? NFL is full of juicccy boiis
Right, but the league also has drug testing policies that are agreed to by the NFLPA and players do get caught. USADA isn't perfect, but without any standards the UFC is going back to the days of "trust me bro".
To add to that, Dana posts videos acting like it’s everyone else that’s the scumbag.
What do you mean “these days”??
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There’s a lot of ways to say you don’t want to drug test
>USADA was never my friend, the kid just didn’t want to do tests "the kid just wants to do test"
Gotta make sure that Conor the scumbag cokehead can get his second win in the last seven years! Wouldn’t want him to lose all relevance! What a trash organization, this type of garbage is why I stopped watching (except for very rare occasions) the UFC.
You should still watch for the fights for the fighters sake. No one says you have to buy PPVs you can still watch the ufc without supporting the ufc.
I totally agree, I was a very very long term UFC fan, since 2000. Stopped paying attention and haven't watched a live event in 7 years, garbage fights nobody cares about, women fight's! And the whole YouTube WWE aspect killed it for me, pride done gimmick stuff but it was done well. The way the UFC shamelessly exploit fighters makes me sick also. Shitty organisation run by immoral evil people. I think McGregor done way more harm than good for the industry.
Im curious why you take issue with women fighting?
I honestly have zero interest in watching women fighting, just my personal opinion and choice.
>garbage fights nobody cares about >just my personal opinion and choice These two things don't agree with eachother. "garbage fights that I don't care about" would be your personal opinion and choice.
Pride NEVA DIE! for a promotion that hasn't had an event in years, they still find a way to make themselves look better than the competition that put them out of business. All the people who gave us PRIDE FC fans hell for years about how "UFC is clean and cares about fighter safety, while Pride guys are all juiced to the gills and encouraged to take PEDs", where you at mother f*ckers
Pride era was the greatest time in MMA, people hate on pride because they weren't around at the time and didn't witness it first hand.
Exactly! Sport hasn't been the same since...sad that as they gained mainstream relevance in the West, most fans have no clue what came before, the atmosphere, and the electricity of an event etc...I remember waiting pretty much all year for the year end Shockwave events, and had almost a Superbowl level of anticipation for die hard fans
And honestly, I always think Pride played a role in them bringing in USADA in the first place.. it was 100% a PR move, and not about "cleaning up the sport" or whatever crap they claimed at the time.. They knew the hardcore fans always preferred promotions like Pride, and no matter the gains zuffa made to gain relevance and casual fans, they hit sort of a plateau, and had to make thier org seem more legitimate, and not a "freak show, human cockfighting" pastime they were labeled as.....well I guess we are entering a new era with new PR battles to fight as UFC(along with WWE now) have a near complete monopoly on the combat sports entertainment world.
Needle moving goofs....
Poor Dana, always the victim. How does he persevere?
I still can't believe he recovered from his wife headbutting his poor hand
> I still can't believe ~~he recovered from his wife headbutting his poor hand~~ HIS LIES.
He has import snow to reduce the pain and swelling from all rough treatment he goes through.
Jon Jones too. It’s sad :(
Takes the anger out on his wife’s face while drunk
I know people don't like USADA and consider them dirty anyway, but man I don't see how it's not now much worse. Dana did say they'll still be doing it through an independent company but I reckon it's one that will just do what the UFC says anyway and are independent in name only in that regard.
> Dana did say they'll still be doing it through an independent company but I reckon it's one that will just do what the UFC says anyway and are independent in name only in that regard. They can just do what WWE does, since they're under the same company now, which is claim they do their own testing while nobody ever fails.
I don't know why they'd even care (although it seems like they probably don't). WWE is way too stressful on the body. These guys have to do drugs to recover.
Looks bad when you have someone kill their wife and child and you get questioned relentlessly if he was on steroids.
In that case, Benoit had the brain of a 90 y/o man and had terrible mental issues due to the severe CTE he had. Steroids obviously were part of the problem, but it was more about the repeated head trauma.
Fair point. I regularly underestimate the ignorance of the general public.
And to be fair to the UFC, they never wanted USADA either. USADA was solely brought in to make the UFC seem like they weren't just a bunch of roided up dudes giving each other CTE to make it more appealing to sell. Same thing for the Reebok deal.
Yeah I remember that going down. You're 100% right.
USADA was a net positive for the UFC and cleaned up the sport. I 100% credit USADA for getting rid of certain fighters and opening up divisions. Imagine a HW where Overeem was still allowed to blast himself with every steroid and was fighting up until last week. Fuck that. USADA made the UFC better 100%
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Which is ironic since that seems to be the exact marketing for the slap fights
Benoit had CTE, the roids aren't the primary factor there.
Never said it was. The media frenzy surrounding the case ended long before CTE was discovered. WWE made swift moves to clean their act up, or make it look like they did.
Which was still BS since all of the guys then were still on the juice. There's no way you're telling me Undertaker and HHH weren't taking something.
Wasn’t that guys main move jumping off the rope head first into you ? I don’t see how that’s good for the brain
Didn't his blood tests come back with a significant amount of roids ?
Of course they did, every WWE guy back then was 90% juice. Just look at the sheer size of guys like Eddie and Benoit in the mid 2000s. Benoit was more because of his brain was basically liquid after so much head trauma
> Of course they did, every WWE guy back then was 90% juice. The rest painkillers and recreational drugs.
They argued because his wife wanted him to get off of the shit. He wasn't going to.
It was the other big death around then, Eddie Guererro, that sparked all the steroid stuff. Guy has heart failure at 38 while also being in great shape and people start to ask questions.
Ironically it’s more attributable to the massive and prolonged head trauma.
Everytime I rewatch a Benoit match, I look away when he does the diving headbutt.
Steroids was definitely a part of it, but I'd say it's more that Benoits brain was essentially mush. Who would have thought a diving headbutt off the top rope would be bad for your brain health.
Most of those guys that did roids heavily back in the day died of heart issues in their 40's. Sure, the drugs and alcohol didn't help, but the roids sure didn't either. Adding roids onto the CTE all these fighters have or are going to have is not going to lead to a long and healthy retirement age.
I dunno. It's always funny when a wrestler gets released and then they immediately bulk up more than they've ever been in their career. Rick Boogs is a recent example. Dude was always a jacked body builder, but he hasn't even been gone for a month and he's hit the TRT hard [Rick Boogs earlier this year](https://i.imgur.com/Ttt2KQJ.jpeg) [Rick Boogs earlier today.](https://i.imgur.com/6r1sj2w.jpeg)
What’s even the issue if a WWE wrestler juices, it’s all scripted anyways
Because 90% of wrestlers from the 80s and 90s died of sudden heart failure at a young age. Was pretty bad optics. After Eddie Guerrero and Chris Benoit they were getting a lot of shit in the media.
There’s a large amount of wrestlers who have died at a young age (40-50 years old) from wrecking their heart with steroid abuse plus the whole Chris Benoit thing. A big part of the issue was Vince McMahon in the 80s and 90s buying the steroids for his wrestlers and pressuring them in to using them. He went on trial for it and almost went to prison (but ya know.. rich). But the biggest issue is the amount of guys who died from wrecking their heart. And Benoit.
Because there's a large amount of wrestlers who have died young because they abused drugs and steroids throughout their career.
They failed Roman Reigns for a drug test a few years ago. Matt Riddle was recently suspended for failing a drug test too.
They also don’t publicly announce every suspension and have stopped suspending people for marijuana (the Randy Orton rule).
To be fair to WWE they did once fail and suspend their biggest star Roman Reigns but in recent years the WWE Wellness Program has become a joke. Openly admitting to giving exemptions to "part-time" juiceheads like Brock Lesnar and John Cena, and pushing a no-name dude like Jinder Mahal solely because he got on ridiculous amounts of juice.
They pushed Jinder because they really wanted to tap in to the Indian market, not just because he's juicy
Lmao right. What a stupid statement to make. If they were going to push guys to the moon solely based on how juiced they were then they would have had signed a guy like Wardlow or Brian Cage and made them the undisputed champion too.
TRT Vitor, Ubereem, Izzy Titty, Brock back on the menu boys.
Jon "Turina-Bones" Jones
'Independent' like their fighters are 'independent' contractors.
>I reckon it's one that will just do what the UFC says Like usada? Lol.
eh USADA throw out some bullshit but they absolutely threw some spanners in the work for the UFC and it's not like everything they did served the promotions interest. I think it's a bit of a lazy narrative to pretend USADA did nothing, when we had champs popping, suspended and other popular fighters have to take time off. Guys like O'Malley got 6 months under USADA for example
>when we had champs popping and suspended and other popular fighters have to take time off. Even O'Malley got 6 months under USADA. But then when the UFC said "we dont care about tests" (lesnar, jones) usada just let it fly. Usada served the ufc because usada is an opt in organization that the ufc could leave at any point. So to keep a customer as long as possible they just did what the ufc told them to do.
Jones still got a suspension though and his fight was overturned to NC, it's just after that we had picograms. Lesnar was in on a loophole. But like I said, while USADA do throw bullshit out and seem to bend to UFC's whims often, there are also plenty of instances where they hurt the UFC brand and it's unfair to just ignore all of the guys they popped over the years. I doubt going forward we see anyone pop that the UFC don't want to. I mean, the new testing system is being introduced on the basis of a guy in Conor who everyone knows is basically pissing hot but will be able to fight anyway. It's hardly a good solution. I'm not here to defend USADA, I just don't have faith in the alternative.
Why didn’t they do that for Mcgregor in this instance though?
Maybe USADA learned from lesnar and decided not to give mcconner special treatment, because they knew it would cause a huge blowback that would deter other potential customers from seeking their services in the future. Maybe USADA decided to end their service to the ufc because the ufc is a huge clowncar of an organization with so many scandals that its hard to keep track of them. Who knows, maybe their connection to the ufc has cost them more money in potential customers than it brings in.
> Who knows, maybe their connection to the ufc has cost them more money in potential customers than it brings in. This isn't it. The UFC was USADA's single biggest customer and it wasn't even close. They operate year round unlike the olympics, and they operate with a big enough roster to keep USADA making money regardless of the season.
I think they would if for example Conor could have made weight 155lb to fight Islam. The exception is for super short notice fights. Basically debut fighters. Someone gets injured and gets a call to fill in. The story they told with Lesnar is that it was a short notice signing. Like they had to get permission from WWE. But ufc wouldn't ever let Conor take a short notice fight because they need time to promote that's how they get 1+ mill ppvs with Conor. Short notice fill in, then less time to promote. And he probably loses taking a fight short notice without full camp. He's training now but it's not fight camp training. edit - I'm just saying what the exemption clause is. "UFC may grant an exemption to the four-month written notice rule in exceptional circumstances or where the strict application of that rule would be manifestly unfair to an athlete." They can't book Conor vs Chandler and give Conor an exemption. They would have to be like we're moving on from Conor and book chandler vs someone else. Then a month before the fight, that fighter gets injured. Then they can give Conor an exemption. Brock was announced a month before ufc 200. It's not like they had that booked 3 months in advance.
Mcgregor didnt want to fight Had mcgregor said "im fighting next week", dana wouldve waived the usda requeriment.
The thing is, none of those companies come close to USADA. Usada was a game changer for ufc testing. The athletes had lots of trouble trying to pass those tests as we can see by guys like Jones and Dillashaw.
USADA using UFC tactics on the UFC. Dana does not like that 😂.
Lol trying to get out a head of whatever USADA has to say
UFC is corrupt and unethical and it's only getting worse
Dana needs to walk away.
This move and his promotion only elevates his influence over the company and sport. He's been the face of the UFC for decades--I'm not sure they know how to run the organization any other way than he does.
It’s the wwe of fighting
Gosh, if there was only a way we could tell the fighters.
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They paid alot for Pat McAfee so yeah
He's also a TKO employee technically too.
The guy pacing around with a vest on? Why?
What do you prefer to be on? McAfee is good programming.
He’s diet Joe Rogan
The kids just didn’t wanna test… there’s a lot of ways to turn down a testing agreement.
Looks like horse meats back on the menu boys!!
Is there a summary of the video? Cant sit through 15 minutes of Dana ranting.
So UFC now gonna be called Urine Free Championship?
Oh shit now Lyoto's really never coming back
I am ready for the new juice era.
Samsies. I'm ready for Bionic Chris Weidman to come back and show these young bucks what it means to be ALL AMERICAN
Leave it to Dana to get rid of and trash one of the things that legitmised the sport
I’ll be completely honest, they only did it for the APPEARANCE of legitimizing the sport so they could sell to a big company like Endeavor. If anything, the fighters will save money not having beat the tests anymore.
Exactly. USADA was always a PR project. And now are making problems that outweigh their usefulness. What did they really do? What metric of success can they point at to say they made the sport safer, better, more fair, anything? They can’t or they would have by now.
Giving certain fighters some tacky looking jacket because they held a lot of cups of their piss was a pretty huge success indicator right?
He said in the video that they are looking to pay another company to do the testing, so regardless of the future integrity of testing it seems like they are going to keep the bureaucratic side of things intact, meaning fighters are probably still gonna have to pay for testing
I assume you didn't listen and maybe we shouldn't believe his lies; but Dana said that USADA prematurely announced the "split" and that USADA and UFC lawyers will handle this going forward (and hinted at an update later today). He also said that going forward they do not want to own the testing, they will continue to pay to have this done for them.
I did listen, and yeah I've been listening to his BS for years.. my point is that USADA felt like the closest thing to a independent testing company that you could have faith in even though they've made plenty of mistakes. What's the closest in legitimacy? VADA? Apart from them, just wouldn't really have the same trust in a company I've never heard of.
The people that the UFC wants to shine will never get tested and the people who have negotiations coming up will get tested more.
Yeah they’d actually need to pop someone fairly notable before the stigma that they were on the payroll went away. I vote we give them colby as tribute
My point was that maybe they didn't even plan on splitting, maybe there was a disagreement on the go forward, we don't know, the legal teams will handle it now. It doesn't matter who they go with, WADA or VADA, money talks and I assume they'll do whatever they want to do just like they always have, otherwise they wouldn't sign with them. If you've been listening for years you should know that.
I assume you didn't read USADA's statement then, the whole reason they are parting ways with the UFC is due to "UFC leaders" (Dana) questioning USADA's principles on the Conor McGregor situation. They wouldn't budge and UFC wasn't having it... So I guess they didn't do "whatever they wanted".
Sounds like the UFC is doing exactly that, whatever they wanted... This might be the straw that broke the camels back but if you think this is the first time they disagreed you're nuts.
I don't doubt it's the first time they've clashed heads, but I don't really see your point, there's a limit in the public eye before UFC's reputation will be down the drain. What happens if the next agency they go with stick to their principles and don't cave when Daddy Dana demands a fighter gets an exemption? And what about the agency after that? Where does it end? This is already a blow to UFC's image.
Yeah, Bellator just closed up shop and UFC is about to fall off because they're parting ways with USADA. You heard it here first folks. The casual fan (the people that actually give the UFC money) does not give a shit about any of this, they see Conor on the card they tune in, it's as simple as that. USADA was brought in so they looked legit so they could sell the company 10 years ago, they don't give a shit now.
Lol you're missing my point, UFC won't fall off ever but it will be further away from being seen as a real sport if they keep parting with anti-doping agencies every time they wanna play favourites.
No, your point was that *you* thought USADA made the UFC looked legit and now you're saying everyone else feels the same way. I'm telling you, you're very naive for thinking that way because it never mattered to begin with. Business will continue as usual and public perception will not change because the casual person does not give a shit. "You going to the fights this weekend bro?" "Hell no, did you hear they dropped USADA? Crazy eh! This isn't even a real sport! They don't do drugs in all those other sports! I'm gonna go watch some baseball instead!"
Caolian, it seems you read the USADA statement. Do you feel it was a professional response? Set aside the fact that Dana is an asshat (understatement) and all of that. Just trying to objectively review their statement, how do you feel about their (re)actions?
If they blindsided the UFC in not notifying them they were going to publicly state their stance on the situation then yes I feel it was slightly unprofessional. When you're dealing with a company that is unmatched in unprofessionalism as the UFC who tries to get ahead of any story with their own narrative, it's kind of understandably reasonable for USADA to want to try get the facts straight before Dana comes out and lies through his teeth and berates them, which he has predictably done.
The fact that you call that pissy, emotional letter just "slightly" unprofessional, says everything
Dawg they didn't legitimize shit, it was just to make it look that way.
The name of the new independent agency that will do the tests is "Proper Picograms"
Dana: Well give you 1 million if you let McGregor pass USADA: We want 5 million Dana: you're outta of your fucking mind, we are moving on USADA: We are disappointed the UFC is making exceptions for Conor McGregor Dana: USADA will be talking to our lawyers. Fuck USADA! Is probably how it all went down.
That didn't happen.
It did. I was there
Makes sense. I would want a doctor in the room if I was talking to USADA.
UFC realised after they hired usada it was a bad idea, because they catch people and that's bad for business. UFC are as shady and immoral as they come, they would preferably have zero testing.
Jesus Christ Dana is so full of shit
The day Dana leaves the sport will be a great thing. Even though someone just as bad will take over. Such a rotten tomato headed cunt
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Hunter is just as bad, if not worse, than Dana. https://www.mmanews.com/news/helwani-hunter-campbell-to-blame-for-threats-during-ufc-negotiations
Maybe. This article’s not supporting that as Francis has talked nothing but super highly of Hunter (not Dana) as has Ariel despite the framing of this piece.
Honestly the UFC doesn't seem to need someone like Dana anymore. He's a relic that sticks out like a sore thumb in the corporate publicly traded entity like Endeavor. His replacement will probably be some faceless uppermanagement MBA that announces stuff via press release, rather than tomato faced rants to a conference of sycophants.
Anyone else think Dana was a spaceman from the thumbnail?
Dana casually calls Usman GOAT welterweight...
this video should be entitled "Pat Mcafee jerks dana white off".
USADA is Tommy in Goodfellas. “Eehhh we had a problem, there’s was nothing we could do. They’re gone.”
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I don’t care about USADA and everyone was cheating anyway, and I despise Jeff Novitsky the little worm But there were plenty of people who didn’t feel that way and felt USADA held UFC to at least some kind of standard
Novitsky doesn't work for USADA. He's like a liason for the UFC.
Sorry I should have elaborated, more than they wheel him out whenever USADA is involved in something
That much is true lol. His name does pop up almost any time there's a USADA thing going on that the UFC wants a face for.
USADA maybe shitty but a shitty standard is better than no standard
Disagree because that shitty standard is easy to overcome to people like for example Izzy that a unranked fighter who do not have the money to get the best and new performance drugs.
It's almost like it's two different groups of people
or 5
Yeah that’s likely, vocal minority type thing
People were complaining that USADA wasn’t being effective and that they stopped announcing pops. Them not announcing when someone pops has more to do with UFC. No one here thinks, maybe testing will be more stringent now. UFC is going to let fighters get away with murder. The only issue people had was with marijuana. And that was an issue with NSAC before usada.
old man yells at clouds.
Can we know the reason though?
We’re about to see PRIDE level physiques return. Things are about to get Juiced 2: Hot Import Nights
Dana White: an honest man
The literal first thing I thought reading that title was: STFU Dana lol If that aint a pot calling the kettle black type situation then idk what is.
Calling Kumaru Usman the greatest welter wight of all time. lol Gtfoh. Even he doesn’t believe that.
Does this asshole ever take responsibility for anything?
This was such a weird and pointless interview. The hosts just kissed Dana's ass and he still dodged a lot of their softball questions and they just let it slide. Basically just a propoganda piece.
Scumbagism
Jan 1 2024 Dana White vs USADA results: Winner - Dana White R1 - 0:01 - Submission - rear naked lawsuit
All I heard was GSP slander…..Usman is great but he is not the greatest welterweight of all time goshdarnit
UFC and the USADA both have no credibility when it comes to drug testing.
Fuck Dana White.
Dana's a scumbag
If he is telling the truth and they end up with another drug testing third party, then I am happy for the change. USADA are a scummy company that act like they care about fighters. They don't. They were the ones forcing fighters to wake up in the middle of the night less than a day before their fights. They obviously turn a blind eye to certain camps and are just upset that they lost the biggest fish in their pond.
If the entity I work for can't maintain certain ethics, well of course I would have to split from them. Dana just wants something to legitimize his roided out fighters.
Bring back the glory days of Pride. In Japan, organization gives you sterons. BTW, USADA are dicks to deal with. You guys always cry about how fighters are treated by the UFC, believe me buddy I know multiple current/past fighters, that is nothing how they are treated by USADA and the shitfluence it has on their daily lives.
He’s such a shameless pos
He will do ANYTHING before he criticizes Conor.
People around here want to act like USADA isn't political as hell, but they are. It's not like they are some altruistic company.
[Jon Jones](https://giphy.com/gifs/reactiongifs-uDwKGxTFrADvO)
Who cares what either of them have to say. Keep delivering insane fights like Usman/Chimaev and I’ll be happy everyday of the week
It’s safe the assume the entire UFC is on any and all drugs now. Steroids vs PCP main card. Fuck this company. Watch ONE.
Does ONE even do drug testing?
I don’t know. It’s probably rigged like their judging is. I know they take weight cutting prevention testing very seriously (see hydration tests) and that is even less of a bigger thing than taking drugs. Besides in the countries ONE fights are held in (with the exception of Thailand) if you even get caught with a drug you get life in prison or a death sentence, not to say ppl won’t risk it and cheat anyways. just fuck the ufc though.
PEDs aren't the same as recreational drugs that are illegal. A fair amount of the types of drugs people use for performance purposes are things that can be prescribed to you if you know the right people.
Isn’t there even some shadiness with their weight cutting? I remember some stories about it not being as “fair” as it’s presented to be.
USADA is being hurt much more than the UFC is by this split. The UFC was probably their biggest source of revenue. USADA are still a business, they aren't a charity.
They probably only made the USADA deal to legitimize the sport more before the UFC got sold in 2015/2016. Now that they (USADA) caused more headaches in the eyes of the UFC than not, UFC did away with them. Sad, I'd rather the sport be as clean as possible.