9 Things You Need To Know About Mark Hunt's Lawsuit Against Brock Lesnar & UFC
8. Lesnar Was Granted A Special Exemption As To When Testing Began
Drug testing in the UFC comes by one of two sources: local athletic commissions, and USADA (U.S. Anti-Doping Agency). USADA handles out-of-competition drug testing for the promotion. It's one of the most comprehensive testing programs in all of sports, and has caught a number of offenders, many with big names. Jon Jones, Brock Lesnar, Lyoto Machida, Josh Barnett, Chad Mendes, Cyborg Justino, and others have all tested positive in the USADA era, and the program is still relatively young.
Under USADA, if an athlete retires and later returns to action, they must complete four months of testing under USADA before being allowed to fight. However, these rules allow for the four month window to be waived under certain circumstances. In Lesnar's case, this waiver was applied, as it was ruled that because Lesnar retired in 2011, before USADA was working with the UFC, he had never fallen under the rule. Therefore, he could be treated as a "new" fighter (the four month window does not apply to new fighters).
It wasn't an unreasonable decision under the circumstances. Lesnar was brought in last minute to save the card, after Conor McGregor was pulled from it. He's not the only athlete to have this exemption: Angela Hill, who fought in the UFC, was cut, went to Invicta FC, and became champion there, was recently granted the same waiver in order to fight in an upcoming bout against Jessica Andrade.