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In a brief statement on Friday night, USADA confirmed that Nate Diaz was neither sanctioned nor provisionally suspended from fighting. Their statement came after Diaz went public about his sample coming up positive for banned substances.
Soon afterward, UFC officials shared their own opinions about the matter and also highlighted how the existing USADA policy was being more detrimental than helpful.
UFC executives on Diaz’s exoneration
Diaz made quite sure that it was known until his name was cleared he would not be participating in any fight, including his ‘BMF’ title fight against Jorge Masvidal at UFC 244 on November 2. He was adamant about having consumed only natural and organic food.
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However, according to UFC VP of Athlete Health and Performance, Jeff Novitsky, it turned out that Diaz’s “plant-based, vegan, organic multivitamin” is the substance that had the contaminant in its ingredients.
Diaz had an atypical reading for traces of a selective androgen receptor modulator (SARM), named Ligandrol or LGD-4033, which helps build and strengthen lean muscles. But Novitsky also added that the level was way under the 100-picogram threshold and Diaz would have to take 10,000 capsules of it to get any PED benefit, thereby absolving Diaz of any offense.
“This isn’t guesswork. There’s nothing guesswork about the Nate Diaz case. It is as rock solid evidence as I’ve ever seen in the history of my anti-doping career when it comes to a contaminant. To say he did anything wrong, you’d have to say, ‘You did something wrong by choosing a plant-based, vegan, organic multivitamin that said on the label they were lab tested.’ Somebody can say he did something wrong on that? It’s a shame if they would. The guy did nothing wrong.”
It is just unfortunate how Diaz got snagged right before UFC could announce the amends to their current anti-doping policy administered by USADA, or as UFC’s Chief Business Officer, Hunter Campbell calls it, “a nightmare scenario”. According to Campbell, finding oneself in such a situation is the "single worst thing" that can happen to a fighter.
“I’m going to get a call that Conor McGregor, Nate Diaz, these guys that I know because I know them in and out would never in a million years do this. They are going to find themselves (in this situation), they’re going to be branded a cheater and it will not only impact their career, but their legacy. That is the single worst thing in my opinion that you could do to somebody, and particularly as a fighter in this profession.”
It is incidents like this that call for an amendment in the current anti-doping policies that UFC follows to test its fighters.
UFC has a new anti-doping policy
Over the last few years, it was becoming more and more evident that the existing policy was affecting the career and reputation of fighters who were taking tainted supplements by accident, like Diaz, and not with intention to cheat.
A new policy is about to be put in place as per the announcement Novtizky made at a CSAC meeting last week, which finds a balance between punishing the true wrongdoers, but not jeopardizing the careers of those who are victims to tainted products. UFC has already reinstated fighters who were suspended for less than 100-picogram/ml levels of banned substances which can easily be ingested accidentally with tainted supplements or market-available meat. Welterweight Neil Magny was one such fighter.
Novtizky too considers legacy to most important and stands by Diaz, clearly representing how much faith the entire promotion has on him.
“Your legacy is what you do this for at the end of the day. The money is great and everything else is great, but you do this for your legacy and I don’t want us to ever be a part of anything that negatively affects someone’s legacy who did something unintentionally who did nothing wrong. Nate did nothing wrong. Nate is not a cheater. It’s literally that simple.”
When asked to comment about whether Diaz would be back for the Masvidal fight, Novtizky said that he had every reason to believe he would.
Credits to MMA Junkie for the quotes.
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