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It appears that, all along, people have been misinterpreting the context of the random blood testing issue. Based on the statements of USADA's Travis Tygart and Dr. Caitlin of the Non-profit Anti-doping Research, a 14-day blood testing cut-off with urine testing up to the fight, would have been more than enough AS LONG AS THERE IS AN OPTION TO BLOOD TEST FURTHER IF THEY FIND SOME ANOMALY IN THE URINE TEST.
Actually, Dr. Caitlin was very specific on the the number of days of no testing where an individual could not be caught, and that is a 24-day window. This conforms exactly to Tygart's statement when he said, regarding his decision to stop blood testing 18 days prior to the fight, that they didn't need any further test. The rest of the random tests would be done through urine testing and another blood test right after the fight. However, if some anomaly in the urine test suddenly appeared, they would get another blood sample. But the urine tests did not uncover anything that could be questionable so they decided to end the blood test.
To summarize; a 14 day or even a 20-day cut-off would have been sufficient so long as both fighters are made aware that further blood testing would be done if they discover any anomaly in the urine test. The continued urine test up to the fight would simply insure that neither fighter would try to cheat inside the 24-day window.
Actually, Dr. Caitlin was very specific on the the number of days of no testing where an individual could not be caught, and that is a 24-day window. This conforms exactly to Tygart's statement when he said, regarding his decision to stop blood testing 18 days prior to the fight, that they didn't need any further test. The rest of the random tests would be done through urine testing and another blood test right after the fight. However, if some anomaly in the urine test suddenly appeared, they would get another blood sample. But the urine tests did not uncover anything that could be questionable so they decided to end the blood test.
To summarize; a 14 day or even a 20-day cut-off would have been sufficient so long as both fighters are made aware that further blood testing would be done if they discover any anomaly in the urine test. The continued urine test up to the fight would simply insure that neither fighter would try to cheat inside the 24-day window.
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