Colby Covington is doubling down on his accusations against Kamaru Usman, claiming that the UFC welterweight champion hasn’t been tested for EPO in the lead-up to UFC 245.
‘Chaos’ also blasted USADA for not testing him prior to UFC 245 but, according to MMA Fighting’s Marc Raimondi, the United States Anti-Doping Agency tested both Covington and Usman once in the fourth quarter of 2019.
“They didn’t test me one time leading up to this fight,” Covington said during a pre-fight media scrum. “They know I’m clean – that’s probably why they didn’t test me.
“Where’s the testing? I love USADA; I love Jeff Noviztky, but c’mon, guys, let’s be honest. USADA works for the UFC, so you really think that the UFC is going to pull a main event or test a guy that could potentially fail the test and ruin their business? I don’t think so.”
”I did ask for it extensively with emails and whatnot, and I was hoping they were going to do it,” Covington said of EPO testing. “I was going to pay $25,000 to piss clean in a cup in New York, but he couldn’t do it. He just completely avoided the subject. I brought it up twice to him, and he just acted like he couldn’t even deny it. So I think it showed his reaction at the press conference – he’s obviously on steroids.”
Although Covington has repeatedly accused Usman of using steroids, the former interim welterweight champ has no evidence for his claims. Usman has never tested positive for performance-enhancing drugs and the 32-year-old said he didn’t even know what EPO was up until Covington brought it up at the UFC 245 pre-fight press conference in October. Former UFC bantamweight champ T.J. Dillashaw was busted for EPO in relation to his flyweight title bout with Henry Cejudo and is now serving a two-year suspension.
UFC 245: Usman vs. Covington takes place tomorrow night, Dec. 14 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
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