Former Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) heavyweight champion, Frank Mir, who now competes for Bellator MMA, was granted his release from the world’s largest mixed martial arts (MMA) promotion after serving a disciplinary suspension from United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA).
One that nearly put him in the poor house.
“I’ve lost millions,” Mir told RT Sport. “I had six more fights on a contract that paid me well. If you have noticed, my last fight, I didn’t even have sponsors. It’s difficult right now to rebuild up everything because of having to battle back from being falsely accused of something. It makes things difficult.”
Mir was suspended two years for failing an in-competition drug test in the wake of his knockout loss to Mark Hunt at UFC Fight Night 85 back in March 2016. The substance just so happened to be the same metabolite that zapped Jon Jones the following year.
But their treatment has been vastly different.
”They’re still learning how the test works,” Mir continued. “I don’t think that you should have a test in the protocol that’s going to affect people’s careers – take two, four years away from them – and not fully understand it. And now they’re backtracking with Jon. ‘Well, you know, some of the tests are positive, some of the tests are negative. We don’t quite understand. It’s this pulsing’.”
It’s been kind of amazing to watch UFC and its drug-testing “experts” (like this guy) leap into action to defend its recent bookings of Jones, despite the fact that “Bones” continues to test positive before and after every fight.
“I’m screaming all these things, the same things Jon’s camp are screaming but, for whatever reason, I’m less believable – a less credible witness – I guess,” Mir said. “Jon is one of the greatest fighters in the world, pound for pound, but to be a less credible witness, that bothers me a little bit. That stings.”
IT’S NOT PREFERENTIAL TREATMENT!
USADA and UFC recently revamped its policy and will no longer identify fighters who flunk drug tests until the investigation is complete and the punishment has been handed down. Something that may have helped Mir during his time on the bench.
“Now I guess there’s a new guy who has the metabolite found in his system, but they won’t release his name until they figure out what’s going on,” Mir said. “Well, that’s fucking nice. I wish they’d have done that for me.”