Three former UFC stars reveal the ridiculous places drug testers tracked them down

Three of the UFC's most popular former fighters have shared some crazy stories about undergoing drug testing during their careers.

When setting up events that see some of the most dangerous men and women stepping into a caged octagon to try and render each other unconscious, safety precautions have to be flawless.

Drug testing is of course of the utmost importance to these safety precautions, with the UFC deploying various measures to ensure its fighter pool is clean of any performance-enhancing substances.

The likes of Jon Jones, Anderson Silva, TJ Dillashaw and Brock Lesnar have all received length bans after testing positive for substances at some point in their careers.

For more than eight years, the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) operated the independent drug-testing programme for the UFC, before the MMA organisation gave the Combat Sports Anti-Doping (CSAD) the contract to test fighters.

Since the end of the partnership with USADA, several UFC fighters have spoken out about their experience with the agency, including Chris Weidman, Jorge Masvidal and Dustin Poirier, who all opened up about some of the surprise visits they received during their careers.

“I was golfing one time and so they had to come to the golf course and they waited for me at the turn,” Weidman told the Deep Waters podcast.

“I had to go take pee and blood and my boys had to wait for me to do it, because once they see you, you can’t leave their eyesight.”

As part of USADA's rules, athletes in its testing pool are required to provide information about where they will be so they can be drug-tested without advance warning.

Unfortunately for Weidman, he once fell foul of this exact rule while the former UFC middleweight champion enjoyed some time in his mountain home.

“I got a call that they were at my house,” he added.

“So, now I had to fly home. I’m flying there, but I hit some traffic. The guy left and that was a warning because I didn’t get tested within the two-hour frame.”

In another incident, Weidman revealed that USADA showed up suddenly as he recovered from surgery ahead of one of the biggest fights of his career.

“Another good one is when I was fighting Yoel Romero, they tested me a million times because everyone was worried about Yoel being on stuff, so I’m getting tested,” Weidman said.

“Three and a half weeks before the fight, I ended up injuring my knee, I had to get surgery. So I get a surgery, but I don’t tell the UFC, because if the UFC finds out I have that—And this is the first event ever in New York, I’m like, I’m fighting, I don’t give a s***.

“So I do the IV, I come back from the hospital, I’m on the painkillers and everything, and I have the band on my arm from the IV and you’re not allowed to get IVs, so all of a sudden doors are getting knocked on, ringing the doorbell. USADA.

"So I’m pretending like I just didn’t have a surgery. I had to undo all the shit on my leg. It was a f*cking nightmare and I was so paranoid that I was going to get in trouble, but it ended up being good.”

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Jorge Masvidal and Dustin Poirier share wild drug testing stories

Masvidal had equally frustrating experience with USADA, revealing that one test ended up as a long and awkward day for everyone.

“They had me after training one time, and I had done the whole training session,” Masvidal said.

“I went in the sauna and everything, like, 15-20 minutes after I’m done they show up and I’m like, ‘You guys are going to be with me all day, because I’ll tell you right now, I lost eight or nine pounds in this training session, I’m not pissing for a while, so you guys are going to have to chill with me.’

“I’m at Top Team, they followed me all the way to Miami. Take them everywhere with me, eating, drinking. They’re like, ‘You still don’t got to go to the bathroom?’ ‘You can’t rush this, brother. Just when it happens. You’ve got to get me before practice, don’t ever come after practice.’”

Meanwhile Poirier revealed that he once had to provide urine and blood sample in a far from ideal location.

He said: “One time USADA called me when I was buying a truck.

"I was at the dealership sitting down signing papers. They call me, like, no way I can get to my house in an hour right now, so they met me at the dealership. Urine and blood, at the dealership.”

Weidman, Poirier and Masvidal are all retired following massively succesful careers, but the latter has recently teased a surprise return to the UFC, at the age of 41.