The Professional Fighters League will no longer have USADA handling their anti-doping program – meaning the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency is out of the MMA business.
News of the development was first reported by MMA Junkie’s Nolan King. PFL fighters were informed of their removal from the USADA testing pool in late summer.
Instead, the PFL will have the Mohegan Tribe Department of Athletic Regulation handle drug testing for all of their events. The Mohegan Tribe handled testing for Bellator, which PFL recently acquired and absorbed.
USADA handled the UFC’s Anti-Doping Program for eight years before parting ways in an ugly public break-up in late 2023, with January 1, 2024 seeing the organization’s relationship with the world’s largest mixed martial arts promotion end.
However, also in 2023 and following a disastrous run in Las Vegas that Spring that saw a full ten fighters fail their drug tests, the league brought in USADA to tighten their ship.
PFL officials have not commented on a reason for the change. In the roughly year and a half USADA handled drug testing for the promotion, fighters like Don Madge, Taila Santos, Alexander Shabliy, Daniel James, Karl Moore and others were hit with sanctions for failing various drug tests. As with the UFC’s USADA-backed program, fighters had to inform USADA of their whereabouts at all times.
