Authorities have become more strict about prohibiting athletes from taking certain substances which can enhance their performance. This has been a practice across sports. Hence, the USADA makes sure that UFC fighters, too, follow the rules. As a result, they regularly test fighters in their pool throughout the year. But they might have made a mistake and Joe Rogan discussed this on his podcast.
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Many people weren’t happy with them testing Paulo Costa while he was cutting weight and dehydrated. The fighter took to Twitter to share his unhappiness.
Speaking about how particular USADA was, Rogan said, “The USADA’s very strict in terms of like, what you’re allowed to take and what you’re not allowed to take. And, you know, they test people very frequently.”
“So much so that… Paulo Costa, who just fought in the last UFC, they actually tested him the day of the weigh-in, which caused a huge outrage because this guy cuts a lot of weight, he was dehydrating himself.”
As revealed by Rogan, they showed up at Costa’s house at 6 A.M. and asked him to test. He was of the opinion it was an ‘egregious’ action.
“… ridiculous, and they’ll never happen again. They put a stop to it and made sure USADA doesn’t step out of line, but at least, they stop people from competing on things.”
However, the MMA analyst isn’t the only one who talked about the occurrence. Former UFC fighter, Chael Sonnen took to his YouTube channel to discuss it, and he wasn’t happy.
Chael Sonnen agrees with Joe Rogan
Like Rogan, former UFC and Bellator fighter, Sonnen too, wasn’t happy with what happened. In fact, revealed that Dana White apologized to Costa because USADA interrupted the fighter while he was preparing for a fight.
Further, ‘The American Gangster’ spoke about how difficult it was to function while dehydrated. Plus, during such a time, it would have been difficult for the fighter to provide urine samples for testing.
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Additionally, the retired fighter said that post making weight, the athletes also need to recover from it. Hence, he revealed a lot of information that UFC fans might have not known.
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What do you think about the USADA and Paulo Costa issue at UFC 278? Do you agree with Rogan and Sonnen? Let us know in the comments below.
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