UFC announces new president of health and performance

Jeff Novitzky, former top steroid cop in the US, and the man responsible for bringing down the careers of such famous athletes as Marion Jones, Barry Bonds, and Lance Armstrong, has moved into the private sector. From the IRS criminal investigations division to the UFC—this guy clearly doesn’t play around.

Novitzky wants to change the nature of sports in general with regard to anti-doping protocols, and he thinks mixed martial arts is the perfect place to start. According to MYAJC.com/news,

“The UFC aims to test all 500 or so athletes it has under contract multiple times each. The goal is more than 2,800 tests in a calendar year. This costs the UFC ‘in the millions.’”

According to USADA’s most recent numbers, in the first four and a half months of 2016, the organization has tested 344 athletes a total of 594 times, including one fighter 11 times (Anderson Silva) and a handful of others five or six times (Holly Holm, Miesha Tate, Vitor Belfort, and Conor McGregor).

The goal here is that Major League Baseball, the National Football League, and many other professional sports leagues will follow in the footsteps of the UFC. He hopes that instituting rigorous drug-testing protocols similar to the ones used by the Olympics will clean up the sport and reduce the use of performance-enhancing drugs.

Source: http://www.myajc.com/news/sports/why-americas-former-top-steroid-cop-working-ufc/nrGSb/