Arnold Allen admits that he believes USADA should come knocking more often.
The English featherweight Arnold Allen is on a roll lately. He has won 10 fights in a row, including all eight he has had in the UFC. He is quickly rising up the featherweight rankings and proving that he has what it takes to fight some of the best at 145 pounds.
Allen is coming off a unanimous decision victory over Sodiq Yusuff last April. Since then, he has been pretty quiet, until recently.
Allen booked a fight against Dan Hooker for the upcoming London card in March. Allen spoke recently to The MMA Hour with Ariel Helwani about the U.S Anti-Doping Agency testing and why he feels the testing should be happening more often.
“I feel like I don’t get tested that much to be honest,” Allen said. “There was a lot of time before I hadn’t been tested once in England and then suddenly they start testing and then during COVID there wasn’t much testing. It’s been a bit quiet.”
Allen’s father was a strongman who he admitted did take steroids during his lifting days. Having discussed this brought about the issue of his own drug testing in the UFC.
Since the insertion of the USADA testing back in 2015, several fighters have been caught or suspended for failing to uphold the drug policy. Allen has not had any trouble himself but feels things could be run a little tighter in that department.
“I don’t even remember maybe before Christmas (when asked about the last time he was tested), yeah I don’t know. I’m also traveling every other minute with these drives three times a week so I don’t know how it would work. I put it in the thing, in the app, telling them where I’m at, maybe they’ll come get me at the truck stop, in the showers.”
According to the USADA website, Allen was tested once so far in 2022, unlike Israel Adesanya and Michael Chandler who have each been tested six times this year.
Drug testing in the sport is always a hot-button issue. Recently, Sean Strickland suggested a lifetime ban for those who break the drug policy. Allen, although among the least tested, is open to more thorough protocols.
Do you think the USADA should be testing fighters more often?
