Will They Be More Honest With an (External) Proctor? Evaluating UFC Match Performance Before and After the Adoption of the USADA Doping Program

Abstract

Over the eight years from 2015 to 2023, the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) partnered with the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) to institute comprehensive external oversight of doping controls. This study investigates the effects of transitioning from internally administered anti-doping protocols to exclusive external governance by comparing UFC performance metrics before and during the USADA partnership. Using a Difference-in-Differences (DiD) approach with data from 2012 to 2018, we find that match duration significantly increased, while the likelihood of extreme outcomes, knockouts (KO), technical knockouts (TKO), and submissions, decreased during the USADA period. These results suggest that performance-enhancing drugs (PEDs) could be more prevalent before USADA oversight and declined once stricter testing was introduced. The findings imply that UFC’s move away from USADA could lead to increased PED use among fighters.