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More questions than answers from hearings

Yahoo Sports

Over the past six months, California has garnered the reputation for having the most vigilant combat sport drug testing in the country.

But disputed positive tests by UFC lightweight champion Sean Sherk and Strikeforce headliner Phil Baroni have highlighted a questionable testing and appeals process.

Last week, at a California State Athletic Commission meeting in Los Angeles, Sherk’s appeal of his one-year steroid suspension was postponed because the commission had not received a handout outlining his case; and Baroni had a similar suspension reduced to six months.

It is becoming clear to most observers that California's testing is inadequate for what the goal should be, which is creating a level playing field for the competitors. Fighters know they are only going to be tested either the day before or the day of a fight. While most find the policy to be a strong enough deterrent, others experiment with how long substances take to pass through the system and try to cycle off in time to come up clear on their pre-fight drug test.

Keith Kizer, the executive director of the Nevada State Athletic Commission, believes many steroid test failures come as a result of mistimed cycles.

Not all fighters are tested. Of the 36 MMA shows in the Golden State over the past six months, only five had every fighter tested for performance-enhancing drugs. Those included all four of the major pay-per-view events held in the state (K-1 at the Los Angeles Coliseum on June 2; Strikeforce in San Jose on June 22; UFC 73 in Sacramento on July 7 and UFC 76 in Anaheim on Sept. 22).

The other 31 shows featured random testing, with the main events and those in title matches, along with some preliminary fighters, being tested. Nevada, the UFC's home base, conducts random tests.

Nether UFC nor or any other MMA promotion tests its fighters themselves, leaving it to the state commissions in most cases. The exceptions are international events in which the cards aren't under the jurisdiction of a state athletic commission.

For its European shows, UFC has conducted random testing because the shows aren't commission regulated, and Marc Ratner, UFC's vice president for regulatory affairs, who headed the Nevada commission for years, is in charge of acting in the role of a commission. Gary Shaw of Elite XC, who spent years on the New Jersey commission, said his England-based Cage Rage promotion would follow suit.

Although there had been positive results in the past, including two prior heavyweight champions, Josh Barnett and Tim Sylvia, being stripped of their titles, most came before UFC exploded in popularity.

UFC came under fire after UFC 73 in Sacramento on July 7, where both Sherk and challenger Hermes Franca tested positive in the lightweight championship match. Franca admitted his usage, and asked for forgiveness. The commission gave him the maximum one year and a $2,500 fine for being honest. Of late in both California and Nevada, all those who have admitted usage have gotten the maximum penalty.

Sherk, who tested positive for Nandrolone, denied using the substance and hired Howard Jacobs, a well-known lawyer in the anti-doping community, to appeal the case for him. He said he has spent $20,000 on his defense and, due to his suspension, missed a championship defense originally penciled in to be against B.J. Penn on Nov. 17 in Newark, N.J.

UFC president Dana White responded to the issue by defending the status quo. His argument was that unlike baseball and football players, who are tested by the leagues, an MMA fighter is tested by the government, which he finds to be a more credible system.

"You'd have to be an idiot to use steroids," White said.

White also noted that fighters who test positive for steroids are given one-year suspensions, whereas football and baseball players' punishments are shorter.

It should be noted that's only the case in California, as each state is different. UFC's home state of Nevada implements nine-month suspensions for a first steroid offense, although Nevada has the power to implement larger fines. But in the major sports leagues, players don't have months of advance notice about the day they will be tested.

After first saying that Sherk would be stripped of his lightweight championship if he was declared guilty in his appeal, White last week told Yahoo! Sports that he had decided against stripping Sherk. Athletic commissions have no governing power over company championships, but that was a surprising statement to be made before the appeal was ruled on. If Sherk's positive test is upheld, a suspended fighter would keep his title.

Since the sheer number of positives prove steroid use is an issue, a process needs to be put in place where either the promotions or preferably the state commissions have the power to work together and randomly test licensed fighters, at least at the top level. That at least would be a strong enough deterrent to close the gaping hole in the system.

Baroni and Sherk have become key players in shaping the direction testing and punishment will go. Baroni tested positive for Stanazolol and Boldenone in conjunction with his June 22 loss to Frank Shamrock in San Jose. He denied use, and manager Ken Pavia presented the strongest defense case yet, showing results of four different clean drug tests Baroni had taken from just before the fight to a few weeks after the fight.

Baroni and Sherk have two of the better physiques of the current crop of name fighters, and it didn't take a positive test for many to presume both were using steroids, even though each had denied it. Both also had reputations for training extremely hard, even by top-level MMA standards.

Steroids greatly aid in the body's ability to recover from harder training, which for a fighter preparing for a high-level fight is a lot more advantageous than the cosmetic changes or even strength gains. However, there were athletes with great physiques and athletes who trained ridiculously hard long before there were steroids, and somehow they recovered and were champions.

Baroni's defense was such that his one-year suspension was knocked down to six months, and he's eligible to fight again on Dec. 22. At this point, he's expected to fight in a March Strikeforce show in San Jose.

But he was not cleared of being guilty for a steroid positive, at least technically. Baroni is under contract to Strikeforce, which promotes primarily in California. New California guidelines for a second positive steroid test are a license revocation.

"How do I fight again in California?," he asked. "How do I risk my career? I was just declared guilty of something I didn't do, and if it happens a second time, I'm banned for life."

While Baroni presented evidence of four clean tests to the commission, they could have dismissed three of them for a variety of reasons. One test was self-administered at the behest of manager Ken Pavia, who gave two reasons for testing Baroni himself.

The first was the fear that Novedex, which Baroni had been using, could have an effect on his testosterone/epitestosterone ratio and cause him to fail on a testosterone positive. The second was that Baroni was taking dozens of supplements, and in the past, some supplements have been shown to be tainted with steroids.

Two other tests, done in mid-July, shortly after Baroni was informed of his positive, could also be dismissed because if a fighter slightly mistimed his cycle, tests done weeks later would be clean.

The fourth test is the most important. After repeated requests from Baroni's side, they were able to get his urine sample from Quest Diagnostic, which handles the drug testing for both California and Nevada.

They sent the test to the Carlson Company in Colorado Springs, Colo., to be examined both for steroids and DNA because they wanted proof the sample was from Baroni. There was not enough urine to confirm through a DNA test that it was Baroni's sample, but the test came back negative for both Boldenone and Stanazolol on what theoretically what the same urine that had been tested twice by Quest, and found positive for both drugs each time.

At the hearing, the commission attacked that finding, noting there wasn't a complete chain of custody, as well as attacked the credibility of the Carlson lab which isn't on the commission's approved list. Pavia said they went to the lab because it was one of the few that would test not only for the presence of steroids, but for DNA, to prove it was Baroni's urine.

"I don't believe it was the same urine," said Bill Douglas of the CSAC, who said that Dr. Barry Sample of Quest Diagnostics, who testified for the commission against Baroni, said in the photos shown as evidence of the sample being taken in for testing, that it looked like a different container.

Pavia, who handled Baroni's defense, was furious at with the proceedings.

"We're very disgusted," he said. "It's not enough to know that he can fight next month. He still has the stigma of being declared guilty for something he is innocent of."

Pavia said that the discrepancy in the urine tests should have at least raised a reasonable doubt. He also noted Baroni was clean a week before and clean again two weeks later with a positive in between, which should not be possible with the substances in question.