Fabricio Werdum: USADA testing is too much, ‘it is stricter than the Olympics’
Fabricio Werdum is not a fan of the policies that USADA has in place for UFC fighters.
Since the UFC’s partnership with the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) was established in 2015, the rate of fighters failing drug tests has been high. Apart from the most recent controversial one involving Jon Jones, former heavyweight champion Junior dos Santos also tested positive for hydrochlorothiazide, removing him from the upcoming UFC 215 card against Francis Ngannou.
Dos Santos had repeatedly denied taking any illegal substance, and his fellow former champion Fabricio Werdum actually sided with him. Werdum also criticized USADA’s means of conducting their business in the UFC.
"I think that this testing is too much, too strict,” Werdum told MMA Fighting. "It didn’t have to be that much. It’s one thing to take something to recover faster… I’m not saying steroids, no. What I say is that USADA is too much sometimes. It’s too much. It didn’t need that much. This testing is stricter than the Olympics.”
“I’ve never seen this before. I think it could be better. There are things that you could take that wouldn’t affect your performance, but you would recover faster. We train too hard.”
Werdum has his differences with Dos Santos when they fought in the past, but even so, he is empathizing with his former rival.
“I think it’s a pity that this happened, but we have to wait for the second test. We don’t get along because we fought in the past, but there’s no reason to say anything bad about him. That can happen to anyone, to unknowingly take something that is banned.”
“I have no right to say anything about this case,” Werdum said. “We have to wait for the second test to find out if he really took something... If he really took something he has to pay for it without fighting for a while, which is a pity.”
Werdum is slated to face Derrick Lewis on October 7th at UFC 216.