Mark Hunt, Stefan Struve and Kenny Florian were all in Macau to attend the Ultimate Fighter: China Finale this Saturday. After hearing breaking news from halfway around the world about the newly instated ban on Testosterone Replacement Therapy, these three UFC stars spoke to BloodyElbow.com and weighed in on the hot button topic.
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Stefan Struve: Perfect. Perfect. It was just a free pass on cheating. All cheaters, if caught using performance enhancing drugs I think should be fired, and I don’t think they should ever be allowed to enter the organization again. I think it’s the way it should be done, and it should be a clean sport.
The (Lyoto Machida and Vitor Belfort switch is) surprising. If all this happened in one day, then that’s surprising. That was really quick, it’s crazy.
Mark Hunt: I was just told about it. I don’t really care. I don’t really care about it.
Kenny Florian: I think it’s a great step forward for the sport. I think it was a difficult thing because while I think there are some people that may need it, I think that some people were probably really taking advantage of the ability to use TRT for competition. I think if you need to use it, then it’s fine, but for fighting it’s a completely different deal. I was glad to see that, and I was glad to see the UFC support the decision.
As Vitor Belfort dropped out because of the TRT ban, the Lyoto Machida has been tapped to face Chris Weidman for the title. The trio also gave their thoughts on the intriguing match up:
Stefan Struve: Weidman is such as good fighter and he sticks to his game plan very well. I think they’ll come up with a good game plan. His wrestling is so good, and I think he will win a decision.
Mark Hunt: Good for Lyoto. Good chance for him. They’re both pretty top fighters, but I don’t know, it could go either way.
Kenny Florian: This is a very interesting match up. Lyoto Machida at 185 lbs is going to be a handful for anyone, and I don’t think there are a lot of 185’ers who would want to fight Machida right now. Lyoto has been looking tremendous at his new weight class, and I think it will become a difficult fight for Weidman. Chris always has that wrestling that could give Machida some problems, but you have to be able to catch him. Lyoto has been able to keep that speed advantage even at middleweight, which is very impressive. We have a very intriguing match up for the belt.
As of right now, I don’t know. I have to go back and watch some footage, but as of right now I have to give a slight advantage to Weidman because of his wrestling. Right now I would say Weidman by decision, but I will still have to go back, do some analysis and watch their previous fights. It’s interesting because we haven’t really seen that much of Weidman. We really haven’t, but it’s going to be a real test for both guys.
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