Organization officials have officially announced that within a week, USADA staff will begin conducting mandatory “initial training sessions” for all PFL fighters who will participate in the upcoming playoffs.
Fighter testing will be conducted year-round “in and out of competition”, similar to the partnership between USADA and the UFC, but with “some minor differences related to the format of the PFL sports season.”
In particular, PFL fighters are not required to continually submit whereabouts updates as they are in the UFC, however, “all PFL fighters, starting in the playoffs, will undergo out-of-competition testing and provide the PFL and USADA with residency and training information.”
As a result of a doping scandal that erupted in the league during the group stage of the season, ten fighters received various terms of suspension, including former PFL champions Bruno Cappelozza and Rob Wilkinson, as well as Russian heavyweight Rizvan Kuniev and former UFC title challenger Thiago Santos.