Ondrej Novotny spoke about doping in MMA. How does he want to tackle it in the Octagon?

Martial arts are becoming more and more popular, especially MMA is experiencing a huge upswing. But along with the popularity, there are also more and more requests for athletes to undergo doping tests. In the UFC, this is happening, but not yet in the Octagon. How does promoter Ondřej Novotný see it?

Doping is one of the highly debated topics within combat sports. Rightly so. We often see fighters accusing each other of taking substances that, for example, improve their performance or recovery.

In the UFC doping controls are handled by USADA, in the Octagon there is nothing like that yet. Ondrej Novotny has already commented on the topic several times and has several views on it. In the past, he’s claimed that it’s not cheap. Now he has an idea of what it could look like.

During an interview with the Round Table Channel, he admitted that the doping problems bother him. So he would like to focus on it. “We’d like to start addressing the things that happen right before a fight,” the owner of the Oktagon MMA organization let slip.

“Without a doubt, there’s a percentage of fighters who are trying to get an advantage going into the fight by taking a stimulant of some kind. That’s the kind of thing I focus on and concentrate on,” Novotny said.

So he’s trying to come up with a system to combat things like that. But he says it’s not easy. For each tournament, such a thing could cost hundreds of thousands, with an annual estimate of several million. So it’s important for the Octagon to have enough funding. Then it can start to solve it.

But there’s another catch. How do you punish athletes caught doping? The UFC, for example, has a strict system in which it invests tens of millions of dollars, yet it has already terminated several athletes’ careers unjustly, as some of the lost lawsuits against fighters have also confirmed. Novotny doesn’t like that.

In addition, this could result in the Octagon firing one of its stars for doping, while the wrestler could immediately sign with another organization. In short, there are several hooks. That’s why Novotny sees the solution to doping problems in the medium term, preferably when his organization is the top in Europe.

Besides, Novotny revealed that doping takes place in all American sports and the tests are done rather by eye. That’s why it bothers him when dirt is constantly thrown at MMA.

Source: At the Round Table