As part of their on-again-off-again-back-on again relationship with year-round, out-of-competition drug testing, the UFC held a press conference yesterday to announce several major changes to their program, as well as further detail the specific punishments and guidelines of this game-changing policy.
The complete rundown is after the jump.
Firstly (and perhaps most importantly) was the UFC’s announcement that it will be partnering with the US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) to both implement and monitor its policies moving forward. As a result of this collaboration, all UFC fighters will be required to alert USADA of their whereabouts at all times, failure of which to do so (or skipping a drug test entirely) constitutes a strike against a fighter, with 3 strikes in a year is the equivalent of a failed drug test.