Johannesburg, South Africa – South African institute of Drug Free Sports (SAIDS) has been implementing testing on EFC athletes during competition and out of competition, with a minor amount of athletes having tested positive for prohibited substances. However, as testament to the organisation’s goal of providing a safe and fair environment for athletes to compete in, all randomly tested athletes from the EFC 48 and EFC 49 events results have returned negative.

The randomly selected athletes that were tested are:
Cedric Doyle
Irshaad Sayed
Danie van Heerden
Wesley Hawkey
JP Kruger
Tomasz Kowalkowski
Yannick Bahati
Themba Gorimbo
Andrew van Zyl

“This is great news,” stated EFC president Cairo Howarth. “We have worked hard to keep MMA safe and it is paying off with our stringent testing policy. We look forward to many more clean test results in the future.”

These results were released less than a month ahead of Bahati’s headlining fight against South Africa’s Michiel Opperman at EFC 53 on 2 September.

All testing is conducted independently by SAIDS. EFC, in conjunction with the sport association MMA SA PRO, follows the protocols put forth by SAIDS under the direction of World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA).

Up until 13 November 2015, all testing by SAIDS was done during competition. SAIDS now conducts out-of-competition testing in addition to in-competition testing being conducted by SAIDS at EFC events since 29 April 2015. Before then, EFC’s anti-doping programme was facilitated by Drug Detection International.

For detailed breakdown of banned substances and testing protocol, visit: www.drugfreesport.org.za 

EFC 53: Bahati vs. Opperman, presented by SUPABETS, and takes place on Friday 2 September 2016 at Carnival City, Johannesburg. Tickets are on sale now at www.computicket.com, and the 5 main card bouts will be broadcast live on kwesesports.com starting at 20:00 (CAT) and delayed live on e.tv after the 20:30 (CAT) movie.