Anderson Silva fick innan matchen mot Nick Diaz under UFC 183 genomgå en dopningskontroll och det visade sig sedan efteråt att han testat positivt för två olika steroider, drostanolone and methyltestosterone. Diaz fick positiva resultat för cannabismetaboliter.
Många har tyckt att det hela verkar misstänksamt de två fick möta varandra trots testresultaten, eftersom att Silva och Diaz är några av UFC:s största namn. Jon Jones fick även han tidigare gå match utan problem under UFC 182, efter att han testat positivt för kokain.
Daniel Eichner, verkställande direktör inom SMRTL och före detta direktör i USADA berättar hur testerna fungerar och varför svaren inte kommit tidigare.
Det här berättar han, via ”Yahoo Sports”:
We’re independent and we have no knowledge of who is getting tested when. We get a unique sample, a biological sample that is either urine or blood, sometimes both, and it comes in the mail to us. We log it into the system. The analyst will go through that sample and depending upon what kind of testing is requested, whether it’s a full WADA screen or whatever, and they’ll look for the illegal substances.
It’s important to remember that the analyst only sees a sample number and has no idea whether it corresponds to any particular athlete or any particular event. If there is an event coming up and we get a sample from an athlete in that event, that analyst would have zero idea that that’s what this is.
If we see anything that could look remotely like a prohibited substance, we then go back to that urine sample in the A bottle and then we do a confirmation process. We look specifically for that compound of the parent drug or the metabolite.
Obviously, we would like to get reports out as soon as possible. But it’s important to remember that the kind of work that WADA laboratories do is different than what a drugs-of-abuse lab does. We’re not comparing us to the same things. If you’re trying to compare us to a workplace drug-testing program, it’s not at all the same thing.
Would we like to get the reports out before an event? Of course. Of course we would. But think of the Olympic movement: You strip people of gold medals. You don’t stop them from racing. Sometimes these things take longer and then you have to go back and sanction after the fact.
NSAC:s talman Francisco Aguilar ansvarade för att testerna utfördes och berättar att han inte skulle ha låtit Silva gå matchen om resultat kommit in tidigare.
Det här berättar han:
Every time you do a new project or you start a new business, you learn as you go along. Yes, we could have done more due diligence in understanding how the program works. But in order to get to where we are, we’re going to have some bumps in the road. Taking those bumps and learning from them, figuring out what we need to do to strengthen the [out-of-competition testing] program and what we can do to make it more solid is all a part of this.
When it comes down to it, I’d rather have these problems, knowing the program is doing what it was intended to do and that’s fighting drugs in unarmed combat.
Silva vann matchen över Diaz via enhälligt domslut, ett resultat som med största sannolikhet kommer ändras till en ”no contest”.
