Andre Pederneiras dismissed accusations about his Nova União fighters being on performance enhancing drugs, and turned the question back to American gyms.
Thales Leites, Jussier Formiga, Renan Barão and Jose Aldo are some of Nova Uniao’s most well-known fighters who were defeated after the new anti-doping policy was implemented by the UFC. This led some fans to believe the gym could be involved in some shady business regarding the legitimacy of its fighters.
All of the accusations forced head coach and owner Andre Pederneiras to speak to Portal do Vale Tudo and address them. According to him, Americans are angry that his gym was able to turn poor people into champions in Brazil.
“I think people are butthurt at a team that remained in Brazil, kept training and kept picking up poor people and turning them into champions. It hurts them too much, because they were brought up at high level gyms since they were children and now they are losing to Brazilians who had nothing to do with that.”
Furthermore, Pederneiras questioned American technology and ability to create performance enhancing drugs that could not be detected by today’s tests.
“Who do you think has more athletes capable of winning an Olympic medal, Brazil or USA? Which one you think has more laboratories that can create substances that can’t be detected in antidoping tests? That’s my answer to those people.”
“They accuse me of something they have much more knowledge about than I do. They have so many Olympic champions, we have a few. If we had access to that, it would be some old procedure to a country that has been winning medals in so many sports for a long time.”