One of MMA’s most prominent managers isn’t mincing words about his feelings toward the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency in the wake of the Jon Jones-UFC 232 mess.
“USADA’s a joke; USADA is fake,” Dominance MMA Management CEO Ali Abdelaziz told MMAjunkie Radio on Wednesday. “Everything the UFC is saying has been right. Whatever beef between him and Jon Jones is between them. Jon Jones is one of the best fighters ever, but stuff like that will haunt your legacy. Everybody follows Nevada. The UFC always follows Nevada, but now you have another commissioner, they don’t follow Nevada or they go against what Nevada do. The UFC becomes so big, and they control so many different areas in the sport and outside the sport, you can’t knock them for (relocating UFC 232).”
Abdelaziz insists he’s not against the idea of anti-doping efforts. However, his frustration echoes that of many others: Consistency in application of punishments seems to be an issue from case to case.
“I don’t like USADA,” Abdelaziz said. “Why even have USADA if you’re not going to even follow? You can’t give some guys a pass if you’re going to give some guys, like (Frank) Mir … two years. Some of my guys have tainted supplements, and they get two years, and other guys, they get six months. What’s the guidelines? You have to follow the same rules. Everyone thinks Jeff Novitzky, he’s the USADA. Jeff Novitzky works for the UFC. He doesn’t work for USADA. But UFC, they pay the bills. I don’t know how much integrity USADA has.”
It seems with each passing decision, USADA is under more and more scrutiny, and that’s certainly been the case this week after an “atypical finding” of a trace amount of Chlorodehydromethyltestosterone (DHCMT), or turinabol, meant Jones would not be granted a license to fight in Nevada with such a short time for the commission to address the issue.
UFC President Dana White and UFC vice president of athlete health and performance Jeff Novitzky each said that experts believed the low picogram metabolites found in Jones’ system could not have provided him any competitive advantage, citing a USADA finding that “the presence of the metabolite is not consistent with re-administration of a prohibited substance,” theorizing the flagged test was due to a “pulsing effect” of the banned substance for which Jones was suspended in 2017.
With that in mind, UFC officials elected to move Saturday’s entire UFC 232 card to The Forum in Inglewood, Calif. Abdelaziz said he understands the decision.
“If I’m the UFC, I would do the same thing they did because I have the business to keep making money, and I have to move on,” Abdelaziz said. “Listen, if you take Jon Jones off the card, how many – (Cris) Cyborg vs. Amanda Nunes, how much can they sell (on pay-per-view)? They made the right business decision. It’s not good for the fans. The fans will suffer.”
And that, Abdelaziz explained, really is the cardinal sin. He believes USADA’s inconsistencies have resulted in more questions than answers for fans and athletes, alike.
“(Expletive) USADA,” Abdelaziz said. “I don’t like them. They’re inconsistent; they’re not fair to people. They treat everybody different, they treat every situation different, and the UFC brought them into the sport, but why even have them? I’m not an expert about drugs, but it’s out of your system, then it comes back into your system because you’re cutting weight? I don’t know.
“I cannot point fingers, but you’ve got guys like (Daniel Cormier), who fought Jon two times, going crazy. I agree with ‘DC.’ Like, how are you going to let this guy fight again with this stuff? At least give him two or three months to clear up, then after that have him fight.”
For more on UFC 232, check out the UFC Rumors section of the site.
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