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[Cat--Smasher]

B.J. Penn offers to pay for UFC 152 testing if VADA willing to hold results until after fight

For much of his career, former UFC champion B.J. Penn (16-8-2 MMA, 12-7-2 UFC) has been an outspoken opponent of performance-enhancing drug use in the sport of mixed martial arts.

And so when the non-profit Voluntary Anti-Doping Association volunteered to sponsor pre-fight testing for Penn and his UFC 152 opponent, Rory MacDonald (13-1 MMA, 4-1 UFC), "The Prodigy" immediately agreed to take part.

Penn has since been forced to withdraw his support of the program due to VADA's insistence the results of the testing be released prior to the matchup. However, the Hawaiian scrapper doesn't want to nix the plan all together. Instead, he said he's willing to foot the bill for the procedures if the organization can wait to make the results public.

"VADA contacted me to talk about doing their testing," Penn said at a recent media session, which MMAjunkie.com (UFC blog for UFC news, UFC rumors, fighter interviews and event previews/recaps | MMAjunkie.com) attended. "Right away, I was for it. But I was talking to them, and we were talking about the process.

"This isn't an amateur sport. What I expressed to VADA was that results need to be released after the fight, but VADA wants to do it before the fight, and I said, 'I'm not trying to put the UFC's fight in danger by doing that.' I said, 'What's the problem? Let's do the results after the fight.'"

The Las Vegas-based VADA, according to the independent organization's website, was "founded to offer and promote effective anti-doping programs in boxing and mixed martial arts." Former Nevada State Athletic Commission chief ringside physician Margaret Goodman serves as president.

According to VADA's bylaws, "Professional athletes will volunteer to be subject to unannounced testing at any time during the eight weeks prior to a scheduled fight. As in the Olympic program, an agreement to participate will require fighters to officially inform us of their daily whereabouts, so that they can be tested per the program. Athletes will agree that all results are immediately released to the appropriate adjudicating commission overseeing their upcoming contest."

Penn first discussed VADA's offer in June, accepting the deal and challenging MacDonald to do the same. However, Penn assumed the results of the test would be held private until after the Sept. 22 matchup, which takes place at Toronto's Air Canada Centre. While some pundits have openly questioned why Penn expected such confidentiality prior to the fight, Penn said the reasoning is simple: It's not his place to potentially endanger a bout he isn't personally promoting.

"It doesn't do me any good to train for three months, and I don't get to fight," Penn said. "It doesn't do MacDonald any good, and it doesn't do any good for (UFC co-owners) Dana White and Lorenzo Fertitta to put millions of dollars into marketing a fight that could get canceled.

"I'm not trying to put any pressure on Dana White. He has nothing to do with this. When the anti-doping agency can come on friendly terms and be more welcome with a company like the UFC, I think that's what they should do, and I don't know why they're waiting and pushing this to take longer."

While VADA has yet to make any serious in-roads into MMA, the organization has recently made waves in the boxing community, as a number of notable names have agreed to subject themselves to the additional drug screens, which supplement the requirements of any governing athletic commission. In fact, a pair of high-profile boxing contests were recently canceled following failed VADA screens as Lamont Peterson was forced out of a planned May bout with Amir Khan and Andre Berto was pulled from a planned June matchup with Victor Ortiz.

With those cancellations in mind, Penn said it simply doesn't make sense to participate in the program – at least not at this time. The 33-year-old Hawaiian is confident his tests would not create any problems, and while he isn't trying to cast any doubt on MacDonald, he also knows it isn't his place to risk the matchup. Instead, Penn suggests he could cover VADA's costs if the company could release the results post-UFC 152.

"Everything can be negotiated," Penn said. "I would even suggest to VADA if you want me to pay for it – because they're doing the sponsorship thing – if I pay for it, can we release the results after the fight? I've expressed this many times to Victor Conte, who is one of the people who is heavily involved with VADA.

"My hands are tied. I'm not trying to put any pressure on the people who are trying to make me money, but if Dana White doesn't get paid, B.J. Penn doesn't get paid."

"As of now, with the VADA thing, we're just kind of at a little bit of a standstill because I know this is a professional sport," Penn said. "From what I understand, Toronto doesn't even have a policy if you test positive for steroids. I doubt there will even be a steroid test when we get there. So as far as I know, who knows what's going to be standing across the ring from you? Is it going to be a regular man or Superman? You don't know."

B.J. Penn offers to pay for UFC 152 testing if VADA willing to hold results until after fight | MMAjunkie.com

[Qball1974]

Dam u BJ for making me kinda like you again.

[LefthookStcrook]

Im not a fan of this tbh. If you cheat you deserve to be caught cheating.

Not get a free pass to cheat, and take the punishment after. Getting caught cheating before the fight doesnt "ruin the fight", choosing to cheat period ruins the fight.

[Rise]

Originally Posted by LefthookStcrook

Im not a fan of this tbh. If you cheat you deserve to be caught cheating.

Not get a free pass to cheat, and take the punishment after. Getting caught cheating before the fight doesnt "ruin the fight", choosing to cheat period ruins the fight.

Exactly kind of defeats the purpose of pre-fight testing

[Sniggles]

Originally Posted by LefthookStcrook

Im not a fan of this tbh. If you cheat you deserve to be caught cheating.

Not get a free pass to cheat, and take the punishment after. Getting caught cheating before the fight doesnt "ruin the fight", choosing to cheat period ruins the fight.

There is a chance that there could be a FALSE FLAG. Has happened before and will happen again.

Also, BJ may be acknowledging that Rory could be using some shit because of his patches of back-nce.

I could care less either way about the date the results are released, as these are extraordinary circumstances anyway.

[Sakara=Excitement]

I wonder if his Mom will whoop anyone's ass caught cheating?

[W.Silva>C.Norris]

I just think bj really wants to fight macdonald. I dont think he wants even the remotest chance of the fight being cancelled..

BJ is ... unique though. I dont really think BJ needs much reason for some of the things he does..

[Sakara=Excitement]

B.J. Penn Laying Out Absurd Condition Which Will Prevent UFC 152 VADA Testing - Bloody Elbow

B.J. Penn and Rory MacDonald had VADA come in and offer them a sponsorship for their very legitimate brand of drug testing for their UFC 152 bout. Both fighters discussed it on Twitter and agreed to the testing, only to have Penn decide he was no longer interested when VADA insisted that their usual protocols were followed with test results immediately offered up to the commission. These tests would happen in the weeks leading up to the bout, meaning a positive test would derail the bout, similar to a pair of situations in boxing with positive tests forcing the cancellation of rematches between Andre Berto and Victor Ortiz as well as Amir Khan and Lamont Peterson.

Penn is claiming that he still wants the testing, he just doesn't want the results released until after the bout. Via MMA Junkie:

Of course, losing out on a fight because your opponent tests positive is an unfortunate reality of drug testing. But the point of VADA isn't to issue out post-fight punishments to fighters who competed dirty, it's to prevent the competition from happening under anything other than "legitimate terms."

There's no more meaningless line there than "this isn't an amateur sport." Do professional sports require fighters be allowed to compete no matter what and then handled after the fact?

I can certainly see reason that this would be preferable for the UFC. I mean, yes, we've lost out on a lot of fights already due to injury, potentially losing more because fighters are juicing (or, in more unfortunate cases, are using tainted supplements...which is still their responsibility) would be bad. But that's what having a truly clean sport means. It means knowing that fighters are as clean as you can possibly have them be (some may still beat tests) every time they step into the cage. Not knowing that if they cheat that they're going to be caught and punished after the fact.

And let's get real. A heavily hyped fight taking place and then it coming out that the drug testing company (and one would assume the promotion) have known for weeks that the guy was on steroids and thus the result is voided would simply be bad PR.

Not to mention the idea that were a fighter to get seriously injured against another fighter who tested positive and then was knowingly allowed to compete at unnatural athletic advantage would be a huge legal liability.

It's just not realistic and we can probably expect VADA to have nothing to do with the fight now.

[Cat--Smasher]

Originally Posted by Sakara=Excitement

I wonder if his Mom will whoop anyone's ass caught cheating?

Did I miss something? Does momma Penn match up to momma Woodley?

*Edit... quick google search answered my question.. Too funny I didnt realize BJ brought her to a NSAC meeting.

[trustkill]

I think that the VADA testing model of automatically reporting test results to a commission as they become available runs into conflict with anyone invested in fight promotion. BJ Penn has the stature to speak his mind on such issues as PEDs, and regardless if VADA testing is used, efforts like this are the driving force between UFCs 'comprehensive new drug testing policy' that is currently being written and talked about.