Novitzky first gained public notoriety during his role as a federal agent for the
IRS. In a 2002 investigation which came to be known as the
BALCO scandal, Novitzky was the lead investigative special agent for a raid on a San Francisco Bay Area laboratory co-operative that was supplying banned substances to dozens of elite professional athletes. The investigation is recognized as the world's most well known performance enhancing drug scandal in sports history. The resulting fallout implicated many well-known athletes in cheating at various high level competitions including
Major League Baseball (MLB) and the
Olympic Games. Notable athletes involved included
Marion Jones,
Tim Montgomery,
Barry Bonds,
Bill Romanowski, and
Jason Giambi. Novitzky was the lead special agent on the federal perjury trial of Barry Bonds. The trial detailed the extensive history of Bonds' athletic performance enhancing drug use during his quest for the two most hallowed records in American professional sports, the single season and all-time home run marks. On May 20, 2010, the
New York Daily News reported that Novitzky was involved in an investigation into performance enhancing drug use on
Lance Armstrong's
Tour de France teams, and that Armstrong's former teammate
Floyd Landis was cooperating with the investigation. In a December 2018 UFC press conference, Novitzky referred to Armstrong as "one of the biggest frauds and cheats in professional sport history." Previously,
Marion Jones, a track and field Olympian winner, pleaded guilty in October 2007 to
making false statements to Novitzky. The bulk of the names provided in the
Mitchell Report about doping in Major League Baseball were provided by Radomski and Brian MacNamee, a personal trainer for MLB pitcher Roger Clemens, both of whom Novitzky persuaded to talk to Senator Mitchell and his staff. In his book
The Secret Race, former professional cyclist
Tyler Hamilton wrote that Novitzky drove a "bulldozer" through the sport of cycling in uncovering details about the pervasive use of performance enhancing drugs. Novitzky has been compared to famed U.S. Treasury Department investigator
Eliot Ness. Starting in April 2015, Novitzky began working for the
UFC as their Vice President of Athlete Health and Performance. Within this role at the UFC, Novitzky oversees all anti-doping efforts, as well as other athlete related health and performance initiatives within the organization. The UFC's program is widely recognized as the most comprehensive anti-doping program in professional sports. In both 2016 and 2019, Novitzky was nominated for the category "Leading Man" at the World MMA Awards, awarded to the leading industry executive. In July 2019, Novitzky was promoted by the UFC to Senior Vice President of Athlete Health and Performance. ==Criticism==