The Global Association of Mixed Martial Arts (GAMMA) has signed a landmark multi-year agreement with the International Testing Agency (ITA) for the independent management of its complete anti-doping program. With the signing of the agreement, GAMMA continues to pursue its goal to be WADA compliant.
19 November 2020 – Lausanne, Switzerland
In its steps of advocating a clean sport, GAMMA is proud to announce that it has signed a multi-year contract with the option of extension with the International Testing Agency (ITA). ITA will oversee all of GAMMA’s anti-doping programme, including In-Competition testing, Results management, Therapeutic Use Exemptions (TUE), Risk Assessment, Test Distribution Planning (TDP), and compliance management. Furthermore, the ITA will review and support GAMMA in the process of updating its anti-doping rules to ensure alignment with the WADA policies.
As part of the agreement, ITA will also roll out an education programme for GAMMA athletes and relevant stakeholders. GAMMA is working towards full integration of anti-doping education within the digital platform of GAMMA.
“By signing the agreement, we show that the sport of Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) welcomes an independent body for doping controls and sanctioning. With this, it confirms our determination to fight against doping. Through ITA, we have the highest level of expertise on clean sport available. This is the first step to facilitate synergies with other combat sports and promote harmonised anti-doping efforts under the ITA umbrella. There is now a solution with the ITA-GAMMA agreement.” said GAMMA President Alexander Engelhardt.
“ITA has a broad expertise in managing anti-doping programmes for combat sports. As part of our mandate to fight doping independently, we stand ready to support any organisation with its anti-doping efforts. We look forward to assisting GAMMA and providing them with the needed expertise and independence to establish a robust anti-doping programme.” said ITA Director General Benjamin Cohen.
About GAMMA
The Global Martial Arts Association (GAMMA) is the world governing body for the sport of Mixed Martial Arts. GAMMA is headed by its President, Alexander Engelhardt and based in The Netherlands. GAMMA is a non-profit sport federation with national recognised federations across five continents. As MMA continues to grow in popularity around the world, we need to ensure the values of MMA are promoted and GAMMA’s focus is on raising the quality of MMA as a sport globally. We are working to develop and implement initiatives to promote the values of the sport and work with Member National Associations to establish quality development programmes and pathways.
About ITA
The ITA is an international organisation constituted as an independent not-for-profit foundation, based in Lausanne, Switzerland. Its mission is to offer comprehensive anti-doping services, independent from sporting or political powers to International Federations (Ifs), Major Event Organisers (MEOs), and all other anti-doping organisations requesting support.
