“Maximum deterrence.”

That’s the phrase Travis Tygart, the CEO of the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA), used to describe the goal of the UFC’s extensive new drug-testing program. Considering what we heard from UFC and USADA executives at Wednesday’s press conference in Las Vegas, it seems like a fitting term.

If you’re a UFC fighter on performance-enhancing drugs right now – and don’t kid yourself, there are almost certainly many of them – you ought to be feeling maximumly deterred right now. Maybe you ought to feel downright panicked, because if the program works in practice as it was spelled out in theory, drastic change is on the horizon.

It’s bound to be a painful shift for some of the fighters. It might be an eye-opening one for plenty of fans.

By enlisting the services of an independent, reputable third-party agency like USADA, the UFC has finally done exactly what many anti-doping experts have been asking it to do for years. It’s taken itself out of the regulatory equation, at least as far as drug testing goes, and handed control to people who know how to do it and do it well.

It’s also committed the necessary cash – “multiple” millions, according to UFC CEO Lorenzo Fertitta – to finance a program that can test any fighter, at any time, and for the substances that many state athletic commissions have effectively turned a blind eye to over concerns about cost.

That’s significant. If it works the way the UFC and USADA say it will, it’s actually pretty huge. It means the days of safely cycling on and off PEDs with no real threat of being caught are finally over. With punishments ranging from two to four-year bans for first-time offenders, depending on the circumstances, it also means that the risk might no longer be worth the potential reward.

Don’t be surprised if some fighters need to learn this lesson the hard way, however. Old habits die hard, especially when they’re the kind of habits that have rewired your endocrine system. Chances are that there are at least a few dopers out there who think they can beat the system. Plenty of them probably feel like they already have, at least so far. It’s going to take more than a press conference to convince them to flush their stash. It’s going to take some positive tests, followed by some severe punishments.

That’s when we’ll get a real sense for how this program is going to work, as well as how committed the UFC really is to it. Sooner or later (but probably sooner), these tests are going to nab someone who really matters. A champion, maybe. Or even just a profitable, high-profile draw. The UFC is going to lose someone it needs, and for a long time. What then?

In the past, the UFC has demonstrated a willingness to alter its rules depending on who it’s applying them to. Superstars get slapped on the wrist for the same stuff that gets prelim curtain-jerkers fired. But in handing over the keys to an independent agency like USADA, and one that actually has the ability to catch dirty fighters in the act, it’s losing that option, at least on the doping front.

UFC executives aren’t doing this because they want to. They’re doing it because they think they have to, and they’re probably right. The sport has reached a crisis point with its PED problem. We just have to hope the UFC brass will still think it’s a good idea once this necessary crackdown costs them a main event or two.

And, make no mistake, it will. In the anti-doping game, USADA is the real deal. It won’t need to show up unannounced at too many fight gyms before it nails someone important, especially with its extended menu of tests. The UFC is doing exactly what it needed to do, what many of us have been asking it to do for years. It’s also doing the thing that may very well expose the extent of the sport’s drug problem, with painful and costly consequences in the near future.

That’s when we’re going to find out how thorough and transparent this new program really is. UFC executives and fighters will find out along with us, and I’m not sure they’ll like the answers.

For more on the UFC’s upcoming schedule, check out the UFC Rumors section of the site.