Slated to headline UFC Vegas 80 this weekend ahead of a blockbuster UFC 294 card next week in Abu Dhabi, UAE, lightweight staple, Bobby Green is picking former-foe, Islam Makhachev to defend his title successfully in the Middle East – for the sole reason that according to him “Russians be cheating” under the promotional banner.
Green, a former opponent of recently crowned undisputed lightweight champion, Makhachev, makes his return to the Octagon this weekend atop UFC Vegas 80, taking on the streaking American Top Team product, Grant Dawson over the course of five rounds.
Last time out, Green snapped a losing skid with a one-sided victory over former interim champion, Tony Ferguson back in July at UFC 291, landing a third round arm-triangle submission win over the Oxnard veteran.
And dropping a first round TKO loss to Makhachev back in February of last year, Green made some outlandish claims regarding the power and ability of the former, bordering on claims of malpractice and nefarious doping.
“I found this little video and it said Islam had a little trouble with drugs, but I don’t see people talking about him,” Bobby Green said. “He was saying that when he first came over that his school that he trained at in Russia, they just gave him vitamins. They’d been doing this since who knows when – when you start training.”
“Imagine if you give someone steroids from the age of 10, 12, 13, 14, 15 – how strong you would be,” Bobby Green continued. “People are like, ‘He was really strong.’ It makes sense now. There’s two people that I’ve moved around with and I was like, that’s interesting. I’ve moved with thousands of guys, that was interesting. I told my coach, ‘There’s something interesting about Islam.’ I felt it. That’s just not human. It makes sense.”
Bobby Green claims Russian fighters under the UFC are “cheating”
And appearing to double down on those accusations ahead of his return this weekend, Green claimed that as a whole – Russian fighters under the banner of the UFC are cheating and have been cheating for some time.
“I’m gonna go with Islam (Makhachev) [to beat Charles Oliveira] and the only reason I’ll say that is – you should be on the motherf*cker,” Bobby Green said on the Jaxxon Podcast. “You should see behind the scenes. Why do they [the UFC] keeping sending ‘em over to Abu Dhabi, you know what I mean?”
“The Russian be cheating right now,” Bobby Green explained. “No disrespect to none of the Russian people if you my fans. I f*ck with you, but I be seeing some funny sh*t that I’m like, ‘Oh.’ Because I know people all around and in different sections and stuff. For instance, Khabib (Nurmagomedov) and Islam and them, they go to a mosque. They train in some place where you can’t be – USADA can’t go, you can’t come in here. For months they can do whatever they wanna do.”