Every UFC fighter is subject to year-round drug testing administered by an outside organization, not the UFC itself. Since January 1, 2024, that organization has been Combat Sports Anti-Doping (CSAD), which replaced the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) after the two organizations ended an eight-year partnership. CSAD runs the program independently: it decides who gets tested, reviews positive results, and hands down sanctions, all without input from UFC matchmakers or executives.

Who actually does the testing

The program splits the work across three organizations so no single one controls the whole process. CSAD, led by former FBI agent George Piro, administers the policy and makes all results and sanctioning decisions. Drug Free Sport International, a group that also works with major U.S. sports leagues, collects urine and blood samples from fighters. Those samples go to the Sports Medicine Research and Testing Laboratory (SMRTL), a Salt Lake City lab accredited by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), for analysis.

That separation matters because it's the same structure USADA used before it: the people who collect samples aren't the people who decide whether a positive result becomes a suspension.

Who gets tested, and when

Every fighter on the UFC roster is enrolled in a registered testing pool, which means testing isn't limited to fight week. Fighters can be tested at any point in the year, with no advance notice, whether or not they have a bout scheduled. To make that possible, athletes in the pool have to keep their whereabouts information current on a UFC-run platform, so a tester can find them for an unannounced collection.

Missing scheduled collections is treated as seriously as a positive test. Three missed tests within a 12-month window counts as a whereabouts failure, which is its own anti-doping violation and can carry a lengthy suspension even without a single banned substance ever showing up in a sample.

What's actually banned

The prohibited list follows the WADA Prohibited List, an internationally used catalogue that's updated annually and splits substances into categories: some banned at all times, others only in-competition. Broad categories include anabolic steroids, peptide hormones, blood-boosting methods like EPO or blood doping, diuretics and other masking agents, and a range of stimulants and narcotics.

One notable change from the earlier UFC program: marijuana is no longer a banned substance. As of the policy change at the end of 2023, a positive test for marijuana's metabolites is not treated as a violation on its own, on the reasoning that off-day cannabis use doesn't reliably indicate same-day impairment. That's a UFC-specific and CSAD-specific rule, though — individual state athletic commissions can still have their own cannabis limits that apply on fight night regardless of what the anti-doping program allows.

Fighters who need a banned substance for a legitimate medical condition can apply for a therapeutic use exemption (TUE), which lets them use it under CSAD's oversight rather than risk a violation. TUE requests generally have to be filed at least 21 days before the fighter intends to use the substance, or as soon as possible if a fight gets booked on short notice.

What happens after a violation

CSAD alone decides whether a positive test or whereabouts failure counts as a violation, and it alone sets the sanction — the UFC has no say in the outcome. Penalties vary by substance and circumstance: steroid violations have carried suspensions in the one-to-four-year range for a first offense, while violations involving other prohibited substances have generally run shorter. CSAD weighs factors like whether the use appears intentional, how much of a performance advantage the substance could provide, and whether the fighter cooperated with the investigation.

A fighter facing a sanction can contest it through an independent arbitration process, separate from both CSAD and the UFC. An arbitrator or panel reviews the evidence — test results, expert testimony, the fighter's own explanation — and can uphold, reduce, or overturn the proposed sanction. Fighters can also accept a sanction without a hearing, which is what typically happens when the evidence isn't in serious dispute.

A suspended fighter can't compete in the UFC for the length of the sanction, which functions the same way a serious injury layoff does in terms of keeping them off cards — see how UFC matchmaking works for how the promotion handles booking around fighters who are unavailable. A finding of intentional doping can also affect a fighter's standing with the promotion beyond the suspension itself, since UFC contracts generally give the company latitude to respond to conduct that damages a fighter's or the sport's reputation.

The takeaway

The program's core design choice is separation: the UFC books the fights, but a different organization collects the samples, a different lab analyzes them, and an independent administrator decides what happens next. That structure is why a positive test doesn't get resolved overnight — sample collection, lab analysis, CSAD's review, and any arbitration each take time, so a violation announced months after a fight is normal, not a sign anything was mishandled.