NSAC budget cuts eliminate out-of-competition drug testing; Kizer seeks alternatives
A budget crunch has left the Nevada State Athletic Commission unable to employ one of the most significant deterrents to the use of performance enhancing drugs in professional competition.
Two years after the influential regulatory body announced it would conduct out-of-competition drug testing, legislators completely withdrew funding for the program.
The NSAC will soon decide whether to press legislators on a proposal to reinstate testing, possibly by diverting funds within the commission's budget.
"What we're trying to do is find alternative sources of revenue," NSAC Executive Director Keith Kizer told MMAjunkie.com (
www.mmajunkie.com).
The NSAC began out-of-competition in the summer of 2008 after successfully petitioning the legislature to set aside money from the state's general fund. The commission received $18,000 for the 2008-2009 fiscal year (July 2008 to June 2009) and conducted between 40 and 50 tests, according to Kizer.
UFC 84 main-event fighters B.J. Penn and Sean Sherk, as well as co-main event fighters Lyoto Machida and Tito Ortiz, were among the first to be tested in the new program. Machida and Rashad Evans were the last MMA headliners to be tested out of competition at UFC 98. None of the out-of-competition tests came back positive for performance enhancers or drugs of abuse.
With state governments around the country tightening their belts amid a widening recession, the NSAC's budget for out-of-competition testing was reduced to $12,000 in fiscal year 2009-2010. Regulators then asked the commission to give back all of the money before the year's end, Kizer said.
In fiscal year 2010-2011, there is no money in the NSAC's budget for out-of-competition drug testing, though athletes are still tested either the day prior to an event or immediately following it, and sometimes both.
The enforcement gap has nevertheless prompted the commission to get creative in coming up with the money to reinstate the program. One solution expected to be addressed at a meeting early next month is to draw a portion of funds from the amateur combative sports program, which pays for some of the safety and administrative costs associated with amateur boxing, kickboxing and MMA. The program is funded by a "ticket fee" assessed by the NSAC at professional events that is separate from the commission's live gate fee, which takes a percentage of the money generated by ticket sales. The ticket fee amounts to .50 per ticket with live gates totaling less than $1 million, and $1 per ticket above that figure.
UFC 126, which took place Feb. 5 at the Mandalay Bay Events Center and generated a live gate of $3.6 million, put $9,649 in the amateur fund. The fund's reserves are currently in the "low six figures," said Kizer.
The executive director said out-of-competition drug tests typically cost $200 per test, and the NSAC doesn't need a significant amount to get out-of-competition back on line.
"Even if it's only six to nine thousand dollars per calendar year, we could still do a lot of testing," Kizer said. "Obviously, we don't want to short-change the amateurs. That's very important for these kids to have events to go to and training, and that's why the fund was set up in the first place."
Commissioners will decide during the March meeting whether to lobby legislators on changing the NSAC's funding statutes for the next state budget, which runs from July 1, 2011 to June 30, 2013. Nevada legislators are working to close a $2.2 billion dollar shortfall in the state's general fund, which has prompted governor Pete Sandoval to recommend harsh cutbacks in education and government spending in his budget proposal.
The NSAC has flagged 32 MMA fighters for illicit drug use since it began in-competition testing in 2002. The total number of fighters using performance enhancers and drugs of abuse could be much higher, though.
One prominent UFC fighter isn't worried about the use of performance enhancers among his peers. His focus remains on being the best fighter he can be, regardless of what his opponents are doing outside the cage.
"I've been in combat sports my whole life, and there's always been guys that were doing [performance enhancing drugs], I heard," said Gray Maynard, who challenges UFC lightweight champion Frankie Edgar a third time at UFC 130, which takes place May 30 at the MGM Grand Garden Arena. "But I've always known national Olympic champs that don't do them, as well as me, and we're at the top.
"So it's never been a worry or fear about anyone else because I can't control what they do. I can only control me."
