Brian Stann: Drug-testing issues 'major part' of why I retired from UFC
Georges St-Pierre isn't the only one who stepped away from MMA partially because he was upset about the drug-testing system.
Brian Stann told FOX Sports that he retired from the UFC last year, because he was concerned about performance-enhancing drug use and that it wasn't being tested stringently enough.
"It was a major part of me walking away from the sport," Stann said. "Knowing that I wasn't getting a fair shake played a big part, for sure."
Stann, who is now a FOX analyst and will be in the studio for FOX UFC Saturday, said he has a meeting with Travis Tygart, the CEO of the United States Anti-Doping Agency, and Robert Bennett, the new executive director of the Nevada Athletic Commission, next week. Like St-Pierre, Stann is tangibly trying to help clean up the sport.
"If all you're doing is testing night of the fight, [fighters] got to be stupid to get caught," Stann said.
Two weeks ago, UFC light heavyweight champion Jon Jones requested random drug testing from the Maryland State Athletic Commission prior to his fight April 26 at UFC 172 against Glover Teixeira. Jones was mostly concerned with the possibility that Teixeira was using -- "let me make sure we're on the same playing field," Jones told FOX Sports -- but it was still a major step in the right direction for MMA.
UFC president Dana White also said last week that the entire card is being tested now, not just certain fights.
Stann said it needs to be a group effort, but it's tough for the UFC, because of the conflict of interest in testing its own fighters. The athletic commissions are also not financially equipped to do large-scale testing, which is one of the reasons the UFC is paying for the random tests of Teixeira and Jones. Then there's the issue with the procedure -- most tests don't pick up things like HGH. And athletes, like Lance Armstrong, always seem to be ahead of the curve.
"But none of that means we shouldn’t try to make this as fair as possible," Stann said.
Teixeira said he's already been tested multiple times by the MSAC and he has no problem with it whatsoever.
"It doesn’t bother me," Teixeira told FOX Sports. "I think they should do that. I think they should do this for all fighters."
Maybe that time is coming. Stann hopes so. St-Pierre has said he won’t return until there is drug-testing reform. Stann doesn't believe he should come back at all, though.
"He doesn’t need to do this anymore, which we all know," Stann said. "There's only so long you can get hit in the head."
Like GSP, Stann plans to continue fighting performance-enhancing drugs in MMA. He believes that fighters he has competed against in his career were using.
"When that happens in MMA, not only is he stealing from his opponent, you can be hurting them," Stann said. "You could be shortening their career."
