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.
About the author
