No Pre-Fight Drug Tests For Carlos Condit & Thiago Alves

UFC welterweights Carlos Condit and Thiago Alves will headline tonight’s (Saturday May 30th) UFC Fight Night 67 in Goiania, Brazil. The former interim champion and ‘Natural Born Killer’ will be back in action after a 14-month stint on the DL, following an ACL tear against Tyron Woodley in March of 2014. ”The Pitbull’ stands in the way of another title run for the Greg Jackson‘s MMA stand out.

Alves will have the home advantage in his native Brazil, where it appears that both headliners have managed to go an entire camp without being drug tested by the CBMMA (Commission Of Brazilian Mixed Martial Arts). With the new ‘stricter’ drug testing that the UFC has been harping on about, you’d expect this to be a thing of the past. Condit has never failed a dope test, Alves has failed for diuretics after his 2006 win against Tony De Souza. The Commission gave a statement on the controversial news, via MMAMania.com:

“We have not drug tested Carlos and Thiago yet; no ‘camp’ tests have been done for this event. All fighters will be tested upon arrival at arena on fight night through urine – anabolic steroids, stimulants, diuretics/other masking agents and drugs of abuse.”

Given the recent overflow of fighters getting popped for steroids and other more recreational drugs, you’d have to count this as a dropped ball for the CBMMA. Then again, they did harbour Vitor Belfort during his illustrious and TRT-riddled three fight streak during 2013. Condit himself gave his opinion on the lack of dope testing during camp:

“Maybe they don’t have the logistics down here (in Brazil) or it wasn’t a big enough fight, but I definitely didn’t get tested. I would be open to whatever they want to do. I fully support what they’re dong in regards to drug testing in terms of the testing policy. I’m glad they’re doing it, but I don’t know (why I wasn’t tested).”

It’s not a good sign when a Brazilian headliner that has failed drug tests in the past doesn’t get tested when in his native country. Add in the fact that made it possible for ‘The Phenom’ to fight during his banned period in the state of Nevada, and this scenario looks a lot shadier.

That aside, this could be an administrative oversight, a lack of logistics as Condit suggested, or an unknown factor. At the end of the day, these guys haven’t been tested. Let’s keep an eye out for varicose veins in the biceps.