Recently the UFC announced stricter penalties for PED users, with more frequent testing, and the promotion pushing for suspensions of two to 4 years for fighters who test positive for banned substances.
MMA and UFC veteran Michael Bisping spoke to Fox Sports to discuss his thoughts on the harsher PED testing policies, and harsher penalties.
“I mean to be honest what I read and what I saw of the press conference, I take away nothing but positives. It’s something I’ve wanted to see done for a long time — more stringent testing, out of competition testing, much more random testing. So these are positive steps.”
“There’s always going to be those individuals who try to cheat the system. There still will be those individuals now unfortunately. The UFC is now actively hunting them out. The commission is hunting them out. If people are of a low moral standard we can’t do anything about that, but I don’t want them to tarnish the sport that I love and I’ve worked so hard at.”
“Of course they talked about increased punishment. I think of course it has to be a deterrent. For some people nine months off, some fighters only fight one time in nine months anyways. Four year (suspensions), I don’t think that will get passed, but two years, that’s a completely different matter. It certainly should be a deterrent.”
“The UFC will catch a lot more people, but hopefully the number (of users) will be drastically reduced.”
“I would have liked to have seen it done sooner, but late is better than never.”