Aljamain Sterling has revealed his frustration with USADA over the lack of international fighters being tested for any performance-enhancing substances.
During a recent appearance on The MMA Hour podcast, the current bantamweight champion revealed that there isn’t enough being done to stop fighters cheating. Sterling was also quick to point out due to the nature of MMA and contact-sport that should be serious reprimand for those who do get caught up cheating.
“It bothers me, man, it sure does bother me because you should do jail time for doing steroids or EPO or any type of sh*t like that in the UFC, in combat sports, in general. You can literally rearrange someone’s career, their livelihood doing contact sports, man.”
“This is not like playing basketball, we’re not shooting hoops, we’re not hitting a baseball into the crowd, you know what I’m talking about, you know, we’re of course we’re dealing with life-changing events when you step into that octagon.” (Transcribed by Sportskeeda.com)
Sterling would go on to say that USADA hasn’t been testing athletes enough and that given the different viewpoints on using PED’s in other countries he wouldn’t be surprised if international fighters are encouraged to use them.
You can Watch Aljamain Sterling’s interview here:
Aljamain Sterling Set To Defend His Title at UFC 273
Despite his frustration with USADA, Sterling will be turning his attention towards UFC 273 where he will defend his bantamweight title in a long-awaited rematch with Petr Yan in April. Sterling acquired the belt from Yan back at UFC 259 following a DQ victory due to an illegal strike and since that there has been bad blood between the pair.
Sterling has made claim before that Petr Yan is cheating or using banned substances within the sport and has spent much of his time as champion stuck in a back and forth with Yan. Finally at UFC 273 with Yan now holding the interim title we will finally get to see who really the best bantamweight on the planet is.
Who do you think wins in the rematch at UFC 273? Aljamain Sterling or Petr Yan?