Den välkände anti-dopingexperten pratar i en lång intervju om Nick Diaz drogtester som domen om fem års avstängning baserats på. Novitzky säger att han tror testen är felaktiga och bör ifrågasättas.
I våras rapporterades Jeff Novitzky ha anställts av UFC som Vice President of Athlete Health and Performance. Novitzky har sedan tidigare lång erfarenhet av arbete med olaga substanser inom livsmedel och dopingfall inom professionell sport. Novitzky är idag länken mellan USADA och UFC och i en lång intervju med Bloody Elbow kommenterar han drogtesterna bakom Nick Diaz dom som i hans personliga åsikt är helt orimliga:
My understanding was that there was three tests taken the night of the fight. There was one taken before the fight, one immediately after, and one shortly after that. The ones at either end, first and last, were done at WADA accredited labs [the other test done at Quest Labs]. Those will be the ones we use under our program, and they are the highest standard in laboratories, both in testing and sensitivity of equipment, and in the way samples are collected. They are sent to the lab anonymously so the lab doesn’t know who they are testing. The first and last tests came well under the threshold for marijuana.
[…] You’re not gonna find better calibrated equipment than what WADA has. That being said, the Quest Labs sample was 733 ng/ml, one of the highest I’ve ever seen. There are big issues in interpreting those results. There’s no real scientific medical explanation for someone having a 40, then right after the fight a 733, and shortly after that back to 60.
UFC, Dana White och andra högt uppsatta inom Zuffa har dragit sig ifrån att kommentera både fallet överlag och domen mot Diaz. Novitzky håller däremot inte tillbaka i intervjun när han säger att NSAC troligtvis försöker agera rätt enligt Diaz hälsa men att de baserat beslutet på felaktiga grunder:
I’ll preface by saying I think the commission’s motives are in the right place. I do think that they really do care about the short end and long term health of our athletes and that’s the reason why they’ve taken a harsh stance in the anti-doping world. I think they’re trying to do the right thing.
[…] (Anti-Doping) is a difficult topic and area, but it’s one you have to get perfect, and all that being said, they didn’t get this one perfect. They got this one wrong, in my opinion.
Novitzky fortsätter i intervjun att han tror att Diaz skulle kunna få domen ifrågasatt om ärendet tas till rätten:
Historically, if you were to take it through a court system, they’re going to look at whether due process was served, and I think if they get some experts in there that look at these three tests, and how they were interpreted by the commission, I have a hard time believing that a court is not gonna rule that he wasn’t afforded due process. My hope is that it wouldn’t even need to get to that point.
