(We get it, dude, you’re scary. / Photo via gerbergear.com)
Despite failing a random drug test for elevated testosterone earlier this year, Vitor Belfort is the leading candidate to get the next crack at UFC middleweight champion Chris Weidman‘s belt. What’s more, UFC president Dana White wants to hold the fight in Brazil, where Belfort competed through all of 2013 without incident, unhindered by random drug tests.
And yeah, that’s bullshit. Handing a title fight in a friendly jurisdiction to Belfort — who also tested positive for steroids in 2006 — would not be the best look, from a public relations standpoint, and one fighter is calling foul, as loudly as possible. On the latest episode of Submission Radio, middleweight contender Tim Kennedy argued once again for the increased usage of random drug testing in MMA (particularly blood-testing, which would detect HGH and EPO), and verbally assaulted Belfort in particular:
“Right now [Belfort is] 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? So he’s being using for 20 years. Your body doesn’t function naturally now. He’s what, 37 or 38? So like 18 years.
“But there’s no possible way that he could compete at a high level against the Chris Weidmans, the me’s, the Luke Rockholds without chemically enhancing himself. There’s no way. 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.”
First off, let’s applaud Kennedy for his use of “the me’s” in a hypothetical list of people that Belfort might fight. I’ve never seen that done before, and Kennedy managed to pull it off.
Beyond that, this is some of the most effective trash-talk I’ve seen in recent memory. It gives Kennedy moral high ground while simultaneously serving as a devastating personal attack, accusing Belfort of using steroids for decades. (And loving it!) Plus, invoking Jesus’s name makes it personal. No matter what happens between Belfort and Weidman, the Phenom will likely want to fight Kennedy next — which is the whole point.
Belfort will apply for a fighter’s license in Nevada on Wednesday, and his immediate future will become a lot more clear depending on what happens. We already know that coming off of TRT after prolonged usage can be physically devastating; hopefully the UFC learned its lesson with Chael Sonnen that they should wait until a former TRT-user’s health is in order before booking him for a fight.
Kennedy takes on Yoel Romero at UFC 178: Jones vs. Gustafsson 2, September 27th in Las Vegas.