UFC Vegas 71: How many USADA sample counts do main eventers Sergei Pavlovich and Curtis Blaydes have?

This weekend’s UFC Fight Night event in Las Vegas is set to feature a headline bout between two of the world’s top heavyweights, as Sergei Pavlovich faces Curtis Blaydes.

With the weigh-ins for the event scheduled for tomorrow, it’s highly likely that the fight between Pavlovich and Blaydes should be good to go.

One thing that doesn’t seem likely is that either man will test positive for any performance enhancing drugs before or after the fight.

Not only have neither Pavlovich nor Blaydes tested positive before, they’ve also passed multiple tests from the UFC’s anti-doping partner USADA, who joined forces with the promotion in late 2015 to attempt to “clean up” the sport.

According to a tweet from MMA reporter Jed I. Goodman, Pavlovich has been tested by USADA on 42 occasions, while Blaydes has passed a total of 77 tests during his octagon career, which dates back to April 2016.

Despite neither man ever failing a drug test, some fans have still speculated whether they are actually clean.

A recent Twitter post from bantamweight Brian Kelleher asked fans to name which three UFC fighters they thought were on steroids, and interestingly, both Curtis Blaydes and Sergei Pavlovich were mentioned by users.

However, it must be noted that these views were not substantiated in any way, and user @RotoBrady, who mentioned Blaydes, later suggested that he’d confused him with current Bellator fighter Corey Anderson.

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What did Curtis Blaydes say about USADA in 2021?

Curtis Blaydes has never failed a USADA test for performance enhancing drugs, but he did see his 2017 victory over Adam Milstead overturned by the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation.

This was because ‘Razor’ tested over the state’s threshold for marijuana in a post-fight test, something that didn’t sit well with him, especially as his test came in under the threshold set by USADA. Blaydes labeled the TDLR’s ruling “archaic”.

“It’s an old rule. It’s archaic. It’s just not very smart. I live in Denver, so things are different in Denver and things are different here now (in Las Vegas)...it feels like they’re more forward thinking, they’re changing and evolving their rules, and I feel like Texas isn’t.”

In 2021, though, the UFC and USADA announced that they had “essentially” removed all testing for marijuana, something welcomed by Curtis Blaydes.

The heavyweight contender stated that it was “about time” before claiming that “weed isn’t going to help you beat someone”.

“I thought it’s about time. It’s not a big deal and it hasn’t ever been a big deal, it’s just an archaic group of people who didn’t understand that weed isn’t the issue. Weed isn’t going to help you beat someone.”