Dana White reveals the annual cost of USADA testing for the UFC
Dana White has gone on record on a number of occasions stating that USADA isn't cheap, but it is neccessary.
During his recent appearance on The Pat McAfee Show, White was asked about the topic of USADA drug testing, which came up in the context of Power Slap. He noted that the Nevada State Athletic Commission ramped up their tests because of the number of postive test results following the previous event.
He said:
"We're santioned by the Nevada State Athletic Commission. Everybody gets drug tests. And actually, because guys popped for drugs on the last one [Power Slap event], they pre-tested all these guys." [2:57 - 3:06]
The UFC President noted that the athletic commission administers the drug tests at the moment and revealed the massive annual fee he pays the anti-doping agency to test UFC fighters, saying:
"No! no, no [it's not USADA testing for Power Slap]. I don't have USADA money yet, buddy. Slap's doing well. Slap's doing well, but we don't have USADA money yet. I pay 7 million [dollars] a year for USADA for UFC." [3:09 - 3:24]
White revealing the $7 million figure for USADA shows that the UFC pay a large fee to ensure fighters aren't cheated out of a win because of their opponent using PEDs or other banned substances, and also penalizes those who have been caught.
Check out the full video:
Dana White opens about about re-signing Paulo Costa to a new contract
Paulo Costa has been among one of the top middleweight contenders for quite some time and Dana White clearly sees value in keeping him with the UFC.
Costa recently shared a clip from an interview that the UFC president did with Ag Fight, where he talked about dealing with fighters. He metioned that he was happy to get the Brazillian back in the fold, saying:
"I think that every fighter we deal with is different in certain ways. You know, some are easy, some are tougher, but that's our job; that's what we do. Our job is to get deals done, and we finally got him dialed in, and it will be fun to see him fight in Utah." [0:17 - 0:34]