Pressure on the Octagon? Foreign stars want doping tests. I’ll be first in line, says champion Keita

Doping tests? A big topic in the world of combat sports for a long time. Several times even the bosses of the Octagon had to comment on it, who have several reasons why they have not introduced them yet, besides the financial demands. However, the organization’s foreign stars are now creating a slight push.

While combat sports are becoming more popular, they are still failing to properly combat doping. In fact, only the world-famous UFC organization and the new Asian giant ONE FC are doing so.

In European organisations, however, there is no anti-doping agency or doping tests to keep an eye on the fighters. Ondrej Novotny has explained in the past why this is the case with the Octagon and how he would like to approach the situation.

First of all, finances play a role. Of course, doping tests are not free. In the second tier, Novotny primarily wanted to address the various pre-fight instigators and overall stated that he was trying to find a system to combat this.

Plus, there’s the problem of having to figure out how to punish doping offenders when, after finishing in the Octagon, a star might head straight to a competitor where, for example, he won’t do doping checks. Then in the past several fighters have been punished unjustly. Even in the UFC.

But the time is coming when doping will have to be addressed. Novotny himself said at the time that the ideal time will be when the Octagon becomes the center of European MMA. This is slowly starting to happen in a way with the expansion into Germany and the British Isles.

Foreign stars are putting pressure on Oktagon

Doping is, in short, a big issue and the more foreign and truly quality fighters there are in the Octagon, the more chance there is for pressure to grow on the organization’s leadership. Now, three foreign fighters have done just that.

Alex Lohoré, the man who couldn’t keep up with David Kozma on May 20 at Prague’s O2 Arena, started it all with his Twitter post. Whether he was referring to him, we don’t know, but he has complained about doping in the past, for example against Karlos Vemola.

“I wish the Octagon would do doping tests. Then the real champions would show up. But in life you don’t always get what you want. Still, you can always try for the right thing for your life,” Lohoré let himself be heard.

His contribution was noticed by the likes of two-time champion of the organization Losene Keita, who is the top-ranked fighter in the Fight Matrix world rankings within the Octagon.“If that happens, I’ll be first in line for testing,” he messages.

“I’ve never touched anything like this in my life. I like pure sport,” reports the Georgian puncher, who recently made his debut in the organization.

Source: Twitter, Octagon MMA