UFC Joins Forces With Canadian Company For 8-Year Deal To Study Impact of CBDs on UFC Fighters
By Alan Snel
LVSportsBiz.com
Photos by J. Tyge O’Donnell
It’s in UFC’s DNA to push the frontier for what professional sports organizations can aspire to. Which is why the Las Vegas-based MMA fight promoter and producer was the ideal partner with a Canadian cannabis company for an eight-year deal to study UFC fighters as part of a CBD research and product development arrangement.
A half dozen representatives from UFC and Edmonton-based Aurora Cannabis Inc. met the media Wednesday at UFC’s APEX facility, explaining that the initial part of the relationship will focus on research to studying hemp-derived CBD as a skin cream or ointment treatment for pain, inflammation, wound-healing and recovery. CBD is short for cannabidiol.
But what will start out as a clinical study could easily lead to product development of items like vapes, gums, mints and sprays, said Terry Booth, the Aurora CEO who noted he dabbled in boxing back in the day.
And those products would come with UFC’s “seal of approval,” said Darren Karasiuk, Aurora chief commercial officer.
More than half of UFC’s fighters are already using CBD healing and anti-inflammatory products, and 30 of them reached out for more information on the impact of these products on their bodies.
“More than 50 percent (of the fighters) are using it. Why not be a part of (the research?),” UFC President Dana White asked. “We’re at the forefront of what’s next. CBD is here to stay.” White predicted sports leagues will follow UFC on the CBD research front.
Jason Dyck, chairman of Aurora’s global scientific oversight committee, will lead the multi-phase clinical study at UFC’s Performance Institute.
Neither UFC nor Aurora said how much the partnership is valued at or how much it would cost to cover the research costs (and who exactly would pay for the costs.)
“It is a challenging task to pay for research,” Dyck said.
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