UFC middleweight contender Tim Kennedy has always taken a hard stance against performance-enhancing drugs in MMA, so it comes as little surprise that he’s never been—and still isn’t—a Vitor Belfort fan.
The two-time Strikeforce title challenger unloaded on The Phenom’s use of testosterone replacement therapy in an interview with Submission Radio yesterday.
Right now he’s down in Brazil, or back in you know California, training his butt off and injecting, anything that he wants to and loving it, and nobody’s testing him, or like his doctor—when I say his, I’m making quotation fingers “doctor”—so he’s like dripping testosterone out of his eyeballs right now, how old was he when he first failed a drug test, like 18? For anabolic steroids? … I don’t care if he’s like, drinking Jesus’ blood like he says he is or whatever, it doesn’t work that way. Like, he’s been using steroids for like 15 or 20 years, and he still is using them. If he ever tries to get clean, he can’t compete at this level.
Kennedy, the No. 6 middleweight in the world according to the UFC’s official rankings, accepted a matchup with the Brazilian slugger almost exactly one year ago, but Belfort wasn’t interested in any non-title bouts at middleweight, per MMA Fighting.
As is stands now, Belfort may have made the right call, as he is tentatively scheduled to be the next man to vie for Chris Weidman’s middleweight gold.
Needless to say, Kennedy isn’t thrilled with the idea that the championship bout may take place in Belfort’s home country of Brazil.
Kennedy looks to make it five in a row when he takes on surging prospect Yoel Romero at UFC 178 in September.
The United States Army veteran pulled off a big upset in April when he easily outgrappled perennial contender Michael Bisping.
Meanwhile, Belfort is enjoying a three-fight win streak at 185 pounds, defeating Bisping, Luke Rockhold and Dan Henderson last year all via a head-kick knockout.
The 37-year-old slugger is 4-1 since August 2011 but remains heavily scrutinized due to his TRT usage and the fact that he hasn’t competed in the United States in nearly three years.
Despite his recent success, his future inside the cage remains uncertain since he failed a random drug test for elevated levels of testosterone in February.
As Kennedy noted, Belfort failed a drug test back in October 2006 for the anabolic steroid 4-hydroxytestosterone and received a nine-month suspension and $10,000 fine from the Nevada State Athletic Commission, per MMA Weekly.
Fighters generally regard the athletic commission in Brazil to have more lax drug-testing standards than the ones implemented in America, though no one has yet come forward with conclusive proof on the subject.
Does Kennedy have a point that the UFC should hold Belfort to much stricter standards out of competition than other fighters, or is that just wishful thinking that isn’t very realistic?
John Heinis is a featured columnist for Bleacher Report. He is also the MMA editor for eDraft.com.
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