Mixed martial arts champion Aldo was arranged to battle Conor McGregor at UFC 189. The Drug Free Sport was contracted to conduct an out-of-competition for Aldo while he was in Rio de Janeiro. Aldo introverted the said match because of his rib injury. A lot of speculations were raised when Aldo backed out from the fight, but that is another interesting story to discuss. McGregor, as well as the UFC and Dana White, all shared their thoughts about what transpired.
There was a lot of issues about the initial sample that was provided by Aldo, last June 11, so it was disposed of. Another test was then conducted by CABMMA (Brazilian MMA Athletic Commission). The sample they got from the athlete was analyzed in the Sports Medicine Research and Testing Laboratory. The result was negative for any substance that has been banned.
As per the report that was filed by the Drug Free Sport. The person who was assigned to get conduct the examination was Ben Mosier, director of the professional sports drug testing. Mosier has actually conducted a lot of tests, even international ones, without any issues for the result and as to how the collections process took place.
Last June 10, at around 10 a.m., Mosier arrived in Brazil. He immediately contacted Aldo’s team to conduct the exam. The fighter’s coach, Andre Pederneiras, calls Mosier back and informed Mosier that he will try to reach Aldo. He was unsuccessful, so they agreed to reschedule the test the next day.
Come the next day, the athlete came with another trainer who was there to assist and translate. The reports, says the team was very cooperative.
The report also stated that, the MMA athlete’s second trainer stopped the sample from being tested. Pederneiras contacted CABMMA to check if they were aware of the test. Mosier’s passport was confiscated, since he was not allowed to get the urine samples, though we can conduct his business in Brazil. A representative of CABMMA came, Christiano Sampaio, to stop the test since the manner that it was being conducted is not according to the MMA procedure of Brazil.
On June 12, after all of the trouble, the sample was collected.
A statement was released to ESPN.com, in defense of Drug Free Sports due to the incident:“Drug Free Sport does not comment on client program specifics related to any collection event, but the NSAC, the UFC and Drug Free Sport were diligent in their effort to ensure a fair and ethical collection event in Brazil”. Jose Aldo has defended his side as well, he pointed out that, he did not do anything wrong and they, including his teammates would not attempt to avoid or delay the test. His exact statement was: “I’m an athlete and they want to prove [everything is OK], so I went there and did everything right, everything I had to do. If they come here again, they know where to find me. They have my address, gym’s address — they know where I am. I gave them all my information, my phone number. They can come here if they want”.