A few weeks ago, former Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) Heavyweight champion Fabricio Werdum asked for a release from the promotion after United States Anti Doping Agency (USADA) handed him a two-year suspension for failing his first drug test.
“Vai Cavalo” has maintained his innocence and blamed a contaminated substance for the positive result. USADA, however, didn’t want to hear what Werdum had to say according to the former 265-pound champion, which is why he wants out.
“I have two more fights with UFC but I have this bullshit thing with USADA. The guys know, hey, I don’t have a problem with USADA, I have nothing in my life with doping, zero. I have 26 tests with USADA and I never have nothing,” he said on The Ariel Helwani MMA Show.
“The guys test me every time, and that one time its nothing, very little thing in my body. And USADA knows it’s a contamination, you know? But they say, ‘no,’ and they give me two years.”
At 41 years of age, Werdum feels he has plenty left in the tank to compete in another promotion, even if it means never fighting stateside again. Still, he wants to make it clear he has no issues with UFC.
“It’s a very hard situation because I don’t want to stop fighting yet. I am young, I am 41 but my mind feels 28. My body is okay. I love UFC, I work in UFC in TV, but the best decision for me is a release for sure,” he said. “I want a release to fight more. I just, I love this is, this is my life, I love fighting.”
What really seems to grind Fabricio’s gears is that the rules laid out by USADA aren’t even across the board, with certain fighters getting different treatment and less punishment for the same or worse transgressions.
You can blame this situation for that.
Plus, he doesn’t feel USADA should have the deciding vote of when he will stop his combat career.
“Why do I have to stop just because USADA said you stop and that’s it? It’s no good becasue the guys know it’s a contamination, it’s nothing. Why would I take something if I never take nothing in my life?”
“The guys test me one time it’s positive. They test me again two weeks later and there is nothing. I don’t understand it. How can you have something in your body and two weeks later no more?”
As far as where the contamination came from, Fabricio says he and his team have been unable to pinpoint its root despite spending plenty of money in research. “Vai Cavalo,” though, seems to think it came from contaminated meat.
Unfortunately for Werdum, he says UFC isn’t interested in letting him go at the moment since the promotion is fond of him and everything he brings to the table both in and out of the cage.
“Vai Cavalo,” however, will keep lobbying to be set free, as he hopes to meet with the UFC brass next week to try again.
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