Ronda Rousey Encouraged By UFC’s New Drug Testing Plans
Some big announcements came from the UFC yesterday, when president Dana White and CEO Lorenzo Fertita held a press conference to address the growing use of performance enhancing drugs (PEDs) in the sport of MMA.
The company announced plans for stricter out-of-competition-testing and harsher punishments. Women’s bantamweight champion who is used to being drug tested as a former Olympian, is encouraged by the direction that the UFC is going:
“I’m extremely encouraged of what I heard the announcement is,” Rousey told MMAJunkie “The drug testing I underwent at 16, or even 14, was much more stringent than the drug testing that I got as a champion in MMA.”
The UFC has also announced that they are willing to spend millions of dollars and partner with a third party testing agency to rid the sport of PEDs. It has not been announced which third party agency the promotion will choose, but Rousey believes no matter which one it is, it will only benefit the sport:
“Now that they’ve started the random out-of-competition drug testing for everybody on the roster, as well as everybody that competes on every card, it really is going to start to be comparable to the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency,” she said. “I really think USADA is an extremely great model to follow, and I’m also very happy to see there’s going to be third-party testing, as well. The more testing there is, the better it is because the fighters will be safer.”
The women’s champion is set to defend her title against her toughest test to date in undefeated “Alpha” Cat Zingano at February 28’s UFC 184 from the Staples Center in Los Angeles, California. Rousey is undefeated as well, and is coming off of two very fast first-round knockout wins over Sara McMann and Alexis Davis.
Will “The Rowdy” one top Zingano and continue her reign as bantamweight queen?
