A recent episode of It’s Time, a podcast hosted by Bruce Buffer, featured Jeff Novitzky who is the UFC’s vice-president of health and performance. “On this week’s “IT’S TIME!” show Bruce Buffer talks with UFC V.P. of Health & Performance, Jeff Novitzky. Jeff has been very influential in dealing with major athletes from all sports and spearheading investigations into anti-doping efforts such as the Lance Armstrong/Tour DeFrance scandal and many more involving athletes such as MLB star players Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens.”
Jeff has been nicknamed “The Golden Snitch”, he’s the guy responsible for catching fighters who are cheating and taking steroids. It’s a controversial job. On the one hand, if he busts people before huge events, you have to imagine the UFC bosses are going to be kind of annoyed at the huge loss of revenue, on the other hand – that’s his job, so he’s got to do it.
There are always all sorts of conspiracy theories about the UFC letting some fights continue, at least back in the day, even after one fighter failed a test. A lot of people thought the UFC knew Brock Lesnar was on something before UFC 200 but still let him fight, only to get popped afterwards. Jon Jones has also spoken about the possibility of the UFC burying a Vitor Belfort test before they fought. These are all allegations that have been made, you can look at the evidence and make up your own mind.
In this podcast episode, they cover steroids in the UFC, testing, and all that sort of stuff in great deal and it’s really interesting to hear what some of the processes are, and the steps they take. Despite the conspiracy theories surrounding big fights from the past, there’s no denying that they’ve definitely shut down some huge events and fighters with positive tests, so it’s not like it’s just a smoke and mirror show.
Speaking of Jon Jones, Novitzky has commented on what type of punishment and suspension Jon Jones might get, and the answer is… that it’s ‘very possible’ Jones gets no suspension at all. Jeff explained that last time Jones failed a test, 3 independent sources looked over the case and all of them ruled that Jones didn’t take any banned substances on purpose.
You can listen to the episode here. The Jon Jones talk is around the 42 minute mark.
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