Conor McGregor suggests Jose Aldo is using PEDs: Maybe it’s Brazilian culture

Given that the UFC arguably underwent a steroid epidemic over the past few months, it is far from surprising that fighters have begun to…

By: Karim Zidan | 9 years ago
Conor McGregor suggests Jose Aldo is using PEDs: Maybe it’s Brazilian culture
Bloody Elbow 2.0 | Anton Tabuena

Given that the UFC arguably underwent a steroid epidemic over the past few months, it is far from surprising that fighters have begun to suspect each other publicly ahead of their respective encounters.

While McGregor is not to point the finger at a specific fighter, he was more than comfortable to label the entire Brazilian fighting community as a potentially abusive drug culture.

“It seems to me like maybe it’s Brazilian culture,” McGregor said of PED use. “The women are on it. The men are on it. I don’t know what to think. So I don’t really have to think. It’s in Vegas. We are in a new age. The sport is being cleaned. The athletes who are dedicated to martial arts and dedicated to health and fitness and purity, they are the athletes who are being rewarded now. I am happy to be part of the new age.”

The new age referenced by McGregor is the UFC’s recently announced plan to implement comprehensive out-of-competition random performance enhancing drug (PED) testing. Expected to take effect in July 2015, the new protocol will include the entire roster of fighters (approx. 585 fighters). The UFC also added that they would advocate for longer suspensions and harsher punishments for fighters who test positive for any banned substance.

With the UFC 189 title fight set to take place in Las Vegas, McGregor is confident that the commission is competent enough to perform the necessary testing.

“Thankfully, the fight is in Nevada,” McGregor said Monday in Vegas. “Thankfully, we are in a new age of the sport. Thankfully, the Nevada State Athletic Commission [is] doing out-of-competition testing. We are not in Brazil now.”

Transcription taken from MMAFighting.com.

Share this story

About the author
Karim Zidan
Karim Zidan

Karim Zidan is a investigative reporter and feature writer focusing on the intersection of sports and politics. He has written for BloodyElbow since 2014 and has served as an associate editor since 2016. He also writes for The New York Times and The Guardian. Karim has been invited to speak about his work at numerous universities, including Princeton, and was a panelist at the South by Southwest (SXSW) film festival and the Oslo Freedom Forum. He also participated in the United Nations counter-terrorism conference in 2021. His reporting on Ramzan Kadyrov’s involvement in MMA, much of which was done for Bloody Elbow, has led to numerous award nominations, and was the basis of an award-winning HBO Real Sports documentary.

More from the author

Bloody Elbow Podcast
Related Stories