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Brock Lesnar’s Failed Drug Test Could Have Come Back Before UFC 200

By Frank Yemi
Published on: 06:38 PST, Aug 7, 2016

UFC 200 was meant to be a monumental event, but Conor McGregor pulled out, Jon Jones was popped for PEDs, and Brock Lesnar seems to have dodged a bullet.

According to a report, Brock Lesnar, who tested positive for clomiphene, could have been pulled out before UFC 200. As we now know, Jon Jones failed a drug test for the same substance, so many fans speculated how one athlete was pulled out before the event but the other was not.

Brock Lesnar defeated Mark Hunt in the co-main event of UFC 200 in a fight that went the distance. Many believed he would lose the fight, but put on a great performance. USADA tested Brock Lesnar many times leading up to UFC 200 and did not get his test result back until July 14.

MMAfighting reports that USADA could have gotten the results before the event if they requested that the testing is expedited.

The publication states that expedited testing can come back anywhere between two to seven days. While prices for such requests can peak at $450, the California State Athletics Commission (CSAC) only have to pay $30 for an expedited test.

CSAC have a contract, which suggests that test can come back in three days, and Brock Lesnar’s test was taken eight days prior to UFC 200.

Even if the option to expedite was taken, there is no guarantee it would have come back in time. Marc Raimondi reports the following:

“There was no guarantee had USADA requested Lesnar’s result be expedited that it would have come back before the fight, saving Hunt from those blows landed by a potentially enhanced fighter. The UCLA lab, the largest WADA-accredited lab in the United States (and one of only two in the U.S.), is currently slammed with pre-Olympic samples and the Fourth of July holiday was in between Lesnar’s sample collection and UFC 200.”

Among the former UFC Heavyweight Champion’s multiple test, five of them came back clean. However, he eventually failed an out-of-competition test and an in-competition test. This suggest that he consumed the substance at some period close to the fight.

Sources speaking to the publication recommends that the UFC get expedited requests on all testing. Mark Hunt, who has lashed out at the organization in several profanity-laced rants, will not be pleased when he finds out UFC may have potentially had the opportunity to prevent him fighting a potentially chemically performance enhanced opponent.

According to MMAfighting, some organizations already request faster testing on all test; therefore, the idea will not be novel:

“Dr. Margaret Goodman, the president of the Voluntary Anti-Doping Agency (VADA), said her organization requests expedites on all results, but the time they take to come back depends on various things, like the time of collection, the lab and unforeseen processes of that lab.”

However, USADA screens about 500 athletes yearly so faster testing may not necessarily be feasible for the UFC, while smaller organization can do so.

Furthermore, positive test takes longer because USADA will run several test on the same sample to ensure that they are not wrong or reduce the margin of error.

USADA have a four months’ rule for returning from retirement, so the athlete can be placed in the drug queue. However, they waived this requirement for Lesnar who officially signed with the UFC about one month before UFC 200.

UFC also have to go around the world testing their fighters and it is a complicated operation. With all this in mind. Had Brock Lesnar been pulled out of UFC 200 the event would have certainly been a disaster with the main event being changed a total of three times with Brock Lesnar included.

It would have been unlikely that the organization would have found another PPV draw with Ronda in retirement.

[Photo by Jon Kopaloff/Getty Images]

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