[alnorth]

I'll summarize what the UFC announced:

In Competition Testing

Current: Most fighters are tested day of the fight, but not all. The UFC always wanted all fighters to get an in-competition test and has offered to help pay for it in the past, but if a state or international body didn't want to bother with in-competition testing, then sometimes in some cards there were no tests.

Proposed: All fighters will have in-competition testing for every fight, period. If the state or international body can't afford it or doesn't want to do it, then the UFC will just pay for it.

Out of Competition Testing

Current: This just started being a thing recently. The UFC leaves it up to the state or international body, sometimes they'll do it, usually not. The UFC sometimes helps pay for this too.

Proposed: All championship fights and all main event fights will have at least one out of competition test 12-14 weeks before the fight. The UFC will help pay for it if needed.

Proposed 2: In addition to guaranteeing that all main event and championship fights have an OOC test, the UFC will also pay for some additional random OOC tests per year. All fighters on the roster are subject to being picked for the OOC test, and it'll be left completely up to the 3rd party tester to pick who and when. (more info: They will probably have a system where all fighters must keep the 3rd party informed on where they are at all times. The UFC will not even know that someone is going to be OOC tested until the test is done and the 3rd party sends them the random test result)

The reality is, the UFC can not afford to OOC test everyone. Currently they pay about $500K/year for testing, they are expecting these changes to increase the cost of testing to several million. So, they are going to ask the states to dramatically increase the penalties to somewhere around 2-4 years. They think this might be such a severe career-threatening penalty that the fighters won't want to risk getting randomly picked.