Weidman, Masvidal and Poirier Recall the USADA Era's Wildest Moments

The UFC parted ways with USADA back in 2023, but the memories haven't gone anywhere. On a recent episode of their Deep Waters podcast, Chris Weidman, Jorge Masvidal and Dustin Poirier traded war stories from the anti-doping agency's eight-year run policing the roster, and the picture they painted was less clinical science and more permanent surveillance. From 2015 to 2023, fighters had to log their whereabouts on an app and make themselves available for random urine and blood draws, usually within an hour of being contacted.

Weidman, the former middleweight champion who sits at 16-8 (6 KO, 4 SUB), had the deepest catalogue. Testers once tracked him to a golf course and waited at the turn while his group stood around watching him give samples — because once you're spotted, you don't leave their line of sight. Another time he got dinged with a warning for forgetting to update the app when he drove to his mountain house two hours away. He flew home in a panic, hit traffic, and the tester was already gone by the time he arrived.

The UFC 205 Cover-Up

The most jaw-dropping story came from the lead-up to Weidman's UFC 205 fight against Yoel Romero in November 2016 — the promotion's first-ever card in New York City. A Long Island native, Weidman wasn't missing that show for anything, so when he tore up his knee three and a half weeks out and needed surgery, he simply didn't tell the UFC. He came home from the hospital on painkillers with an IV band still on his arm — IVs were banned under the program — when USADA showed up at the door. He ripped the wrapping off his leg and played it cool. He said the whole thing was a nightmare and he was terrified of getting caught, but it worked out.

Masvidal's version was more comedy than crisis. Testers caught him right after a training session at American Top Team, sauna and all, when he'd sweated off eight or nine pounds and had nothing to give. He told them plainly they'd be spending the whole day with him, then dragged the crew all the way to Miami — eating, drinking, running errands — until his body finally cooperated. His advice to testers: catch him before practice, never after.

Poirier, now 30-10 (16 KO, 7 SUB) with seven submissions, got a call while he was sitting in a dealership signing papers on a new truck. There was no way to get home inside the hour, so agents just met him there and collected urine and blood on-site. All three agreed the timing could be brutal — Poirier described a 6 a.m. knock on Super Bowl Sunday, and Masvidal said the early Sunday visits had happened to him twice. His verdict on those mornings was, let's say, not printable in polite company.

Whether USADA was a net positive for the sport is still argued, but these three lived it day to day for the better part of a decade. The stories land as a reminder of just how invasive the clean-sport machinery got — and why plenty of veterans didn't shed a tear when the UFC moved on from it.