Georges St-Pierre is claiming the UFC told Johny Hendricks to refuse drug testing in the lead-up to their title bout.
St-Pierre and Hendricks met in the main event of UFC 167 for the welterweight championship back in 2013. It was a back-and-forth affair that eventually saw ‘GSP’ declared winner by split decision. Many believed Hendricks had done enough to earn the victory, and calls for a rematch rang out through the MMA community. However, it was not to be, as St-Pierre would announce his retirement shortly there after.
One of the main reasons St-Pierre cited for his decision to walk away from the sport was a lack of any sort of official drug testing policy being put into place. Now, on a recent edition of the Legend 2 Legend with Burt Watson podcast, ‘Rush’ said that the UFC actively persuaded Hendricks from undergoing drug testing prior to the fight (H/T Sportskeeda).
“I was telling Johny Hendricks that ‘Okay, let’s make drug testing for that fight’ and he agreed in the beginning but the after, he said no,” St-Pierre recalled. “He didn’t want to do it and I’ve learned also that UFC tell him to not do it because they didn’t want to start a trend that people start doing it [drug testing]. I know there’s a lot of good fighters that are honest, that don’t cheat and it would have made a lot of guys that are honest, who think their opponent might be cheating, to do the same trend. They didn’t want that to start so they told Johny Hendricks to not do it.”
It’s a rather bold claim by the former welterweight champion, and, if true, a pretty damning one for the UFC. Stopping your athletes from ensuring that they’re playing on a safe and level field isn’t exactly a good look for a sports organization.
Of course, the UFC would eventually reach a deal with USADA in 2015 to start regularly testing their fighters. That move would eventually pave the way for St-Pierre to make his return to the organization, where he would defeat Michael Bisping for the middleweight championship at UFC 217 in 2017. He would retire once again shortly after that bout and his since enjoyed a successful career outside of the octagon, including appearing in multiple Marvel projects.
Do you believe Georges St-Pierre’s claims that the UFC prevented Johny Hendricks from undergoing drug testing?