Just a week after Cris “Cyborg” Santos tested positive for stanazalol, Strikeforce has lost another headliner due to a failed drug test.

Earlier this week, the Nevada State Athletic Commission announced that Muhammad “King Mo” Lawal had tested positive for another anabolic steroid, drostanolone, the day of the January 7th event.

Zuffa, the parent company of the UFC, acquired Strikeforce last Summer. Despite having some big names attached to it, the promotion itself was never a big money maker. Even the most recent card, which featured some of its bigger names and a former UFC main-eventer, only garnered a $65,000 live gate. But the deal with Showtime made it valuable, as did the marquee talent it had under contract. King Mo was certainly one of those guys who the UFC was hoping would give the promotion some momentum to build on and keep the Showtime brass happy.

As with nearly every fighter who’s failed a drug test, Mo is denying any wrongdoing. I’m sure the “tainted supplement” defense might rear its ridiculous head. But the bottom line is that Mo’s failure underscores a very real problem in MMA in regards to not only PEDs but fighters’ seeming inability to effectively cycle and avoid a positive drug test.

The response from Zuffa has been to announce that all fighters must pass a drug test before they’re signed. It’s certainly a start, although hard to imagine someone failing that test with advanced knowledge. On the other hand, it’s not all that different from knowing ahead of time that there’s a good chance you’ll be tested the day of a fight.

Zuffa, for their own sake, needs to go one step further and initiate their own random drug testing. The last couple years has seen a rash of fighters failing drug tests or having issues related to PEDs with State Athletic Commissions, many of them marquee names. And unlike the NFL and other professional sports, the UFC can’t regulate and control that testing, which means that guys are going to get caught. It’s in Zuffa’s best interest financially, then, to cut it off at the pass and protect themselves from public embarrassment and the financial loss that results when main event fighters get popped and shelved for a six months, a year, or more.

Will it happen? I’m skeptical, but think it’s a possibility. In addition to PEDs, the UFC has also had a rash of injuries to main eventers that have postponed fights and jeopardized entire cards (their inability to put together a main event for March resulted in them outright cancelling an event in Montreal). Those injuries lead many fighters who need the money to turn to PEDs and painkillers to accelerate their recovery, which only feeds into the problem.

While most arguments for random drug testing center around fairness and fighter safety, the only one that will matter to a company like Zuffa is that it’s good business. Given the increased exposure from the deal with Fox and the money lost in the last two years due to drug test failures, I think you’ll see that argument gaining more traction.