LAS VEGAS — According to Hunter Campbell, the UFC’s Chief Business Officer, what happened to Nate Diaz this week was the “nightmare scenario” of what could go wrong with the company’s anti-doping policy as pertains to tainted supplements.
“I’m going to get a call that Conor McGregor, Nate Diaz, these guys that I know because I know them in and out would never in a million years do this,” Campbell said Friday night. “They are going to find themselves (in this situation), they’re going to be branded a cheater and it will not only impact their career, but their legacy. That is the single worst thing in my opinion that you could do to somebody, and particularly as a fighter in this profession.”
Over the course of the past several years, since the company adopted U.S. Anti-Doping Agency-administered testing, it has become increasingly apparent that tainted supplements used by fighters who are not intending to cheat is a real thing, and not simply an excuse made after one gets caught.
The UFC has worked for much of this year to amend the policy in a common-sense manner that doesn’t unfairly punish fighters who clearly did not intend to break the rules, while also continuing to catch those who are in fact deliberately running afoul of the program.
And right before the policy was set to be formally announced — UFC VP of Athlete Health and Performance Jeff Novtizky said at a California State Athletic Commission meeting in Los Angeles last week that changes would be announced “in a couple weeks” — Diaz got snagged, less than two weeks before his major headlining fight against Jorge Masvidal at UFC 244, the fruition of Campbell’s “nightmare scenario.”
Diaz had an atypical reading in an out-of-competition for traces of LGD-4033, or Ligandrol, a selective androgen receptor modulator (SARM) which builds lean muscle mass, in a recent out-of-competition USADA test.
Dating back to an agreement in principle with USADA on Aug. 31, the company has reinstated fighters who have tested for less than 100 picograms/mL of certain substances, which can show up in tainted supplements or meat. Welterweight Neil Magny was among those who tested for microscopic levels of LGD-4033 and was reinstated after a provisional suspension, which was levied under the old system.
Novitzky said Diaz tested in double-digit picograms for LGD-4033 which showed up in an organic, vegan multivitamin, and termed it “comfortably under” the 100-picogram threshold. He also stated that Diaz would have to take 10,000 capsules of the multivitamin in order to get get a performance-enhancing benefit.
“This isn’t guesswork,” Novitzky said. “There’s nothing guesswork about the Nate Diaz case. It is as rock solid evidence as I’ve ever seen in the history of my anti-doping career when it comes to a contaminant. To say he did anything wrong, you’d have to say, ‘You did something wrong by choosing a plant-based, vegan, organic multivitamin that said on the label they were lab tested.’ Somebody can say he did something wrong on that? It’s a shame if they would. The guy did nothing wrong.”
Diaz was adamant his name be cleared, which apparently led to Thursday’s social media post that announced he was out.
“What was important to Nate, immediately, before anything he put out there or anything he commented, as it was conveyed to us, was that he be cleared,” Campbell said. “That was the single most important thing for Nate. And I think what was telling in the statement that he put out, animated as it was, as he usually is, it highlights exactly, what I think the evolution of the anti-doping world is starting to show, Nate’s comment was ‘I don’t cheat, I only take plant-based vegan,’ … what he basically had contaminated was exactly what he believed it was. A plant-based, vegan, organic multivitamin. Period. End of discussion.”
Later, Novitzky added “It was a supplement that clearly was not marketed as a workaround that you see with certain supplements, saying ‘you absolutely should have known based on packaging or the presentation that this substance was in it.’ The label was clearly set forth .. it looks like the most innocuous, daily multivitamin. It wasn’t ‘Jacked 5000’ or ‘Black Rhino.’”
As of this writing late Friday night, Diaz himself has not stated whether he is back in the fight. Campbell, for his part, said “I have every reason to believe he is in.”
Campbell and Novitzky also noted that the New York State Athletic Commission has been kept abreast of the situation every step of the way, although the commission itself has yet to make a statement.
USADA issued a brief statement Friday night. “Following Mr. Diaz’s public comments on Thursday we can confirm that he has not been sanctioned or provisionally suspended by USADA. As the independent administrator of the UFC Anti-Doping program, USADA always provides every athlete the presumption of innocence. If the athlete publicly speaks of a potential violation first, then USADA may choose to comment.” the statement read.
Ultimately, Campbell believes that while the timing of the situation was unfortunate on multiple levels, at the end of the day, the UFC wants to do right by Diaz.
“Your legacy is what you do this for at the end of the day,” Campbell said. “The money is great and everything else is great, but you do this for your legacy and I don’t want us to ever be a part of anything that negatively affects someone’s legacy who did something unintentionally who did nothing wrong. Nate did nothing wrong. Nate is not a cheater. It’s literally that simple.”
UFC execs on why Nate Diaz was exonerated: ‘Nate is not a cheater’