USADA

Kennedy's bizarre USADA experience

Donald Cerrone has never been one to bite his tongue, and this week he's been talking about the prospect of leading a fighters' union.Speaking on his BMF Ranch podcast earlier this week with his guests Derek Brunson and Tim Kennedy, Cerrone revealed his thoughts on the launch of the Professional Fighters Association (PFA) and hinted that it hadn't lived up to what he'd hoped."We laugh...so close, fighter union here we come," Cerrone said. "I'll headline it. I'm with you guys. We need the union. I've said this many times, and I think we need strong fighters and popular fighters that headline and let everyone know that we need--not only better pay--but we need dental, we need medical and what happens if we get hurt? Where is your 401K? Where is anything? Every other sport in the world has a union."[tweet url="https://twitter.com/FightersAssoc/status/763735459306496000" hide_media="0" hide_thread="1"]"It's not fair to what we are doing, because like I told you the other day, if you were Derek Brunson playing football or baseball--you'd be a 10 million dollar a year guy--at least. Why are you not right now? Because we don't have a union, because if Derek Brunson doesn't fight, this guy will just do it for $2,000 because, oh, it's the UFC...Guys saying, 'I'll fight for free, put me in,' that's our problem."Cerrone added that when a union does form that ticks all those boxes, he happily throw his full weight behind it."We need league minimums," Cerrone said. "We need everything. We need to pay our dues. It's not only pay. It's so much deeper, what needs to be happening with the union. When it comes, I'll be on the front lines saying, 'I'm Cowboy. I'm f----n' pro-Trump and pro-union."The talk then moved on to the USADA program and what them made of that. Both Kennedy and Brunson had mixed feelings about its implementation, but Kennedy was more on the side of it being a positive move for the sport despite having some gaps."You see guys that go train in Thailand for six weeks or they pack their bags for six weeks and go and work on kickboxing with the Dutch guys, and then they look like different people when they come back," Kennedy said. "Guys are still getting through the system."I think it's kind of weird and intrusive, but I love USADA. I love that they can just come and do it any time. I think they gotta remember that they are coming into our home. I'm not sure people understand how intrusive it is."Kennedy then gave an example of the process a fighter must go through when they get a visit, revealing how he got to know one USADA agent better than some others."Last time I got tested, like a week ago, this guy came into my house and I'd just came back from a workout," Kennedy said. "He was like, 'We can't take blood for an hour,' and I was like, 'Well, I just got done with a workout. Can I take a shower?' He said he had to visually keep his eyes on me the whole time so I was like, 'Well, I'm taking a shower,' I walked into my bathroom, took my clothes off and he walked into the bathroom with me and watched me shower."He was like, 'Are you serious?' So I said, 'Shall I rinse again? Shall I use more soap? Are my balls clean?' He 100 percent watched me. I'm not going to sit there dirty after practice."