On Wednesday night’s edition of UFC Tonight, Ariel Helwani reported that Cung Le andMichael Bisping would participate in “enhanced drug testing” for their bout this weekend in Macau.
The only real details mentioned so far is that there will be some form of blood testing in addition to the standard urine.
The push for extra testing came on the heels of Le posting this photo:
Le looks unusually jacked in the photo which led to some speculation by Bisping and others.
Le and Bisping both suggested that they were comfortable with the idea of the extra testing when talking with MMA Junkie.
Bloody Elbow has reached out to the UFC for information on what exactly “enhanced testing” means. Simply adding blood testing doesn’t necessarily mean much, it’s what tests are run that determine what they would be able to catch.
Are they running a carbon isotope ratio test to try and detect the presence of synthetic testosterone? Are they running a basic test which might not catch anything cycled off of already to avoid detection in the standard urine test?
And, the testing not happening until this point in the process takes the random element that is key to drug testing success out of the equation.
Basically, the term “enhanced” doesn’t mean anything without context.
We’ll provide an update if the UFC answers our questions regarding specifics.
