In July, UFC Fight Night 94 co-main event middleweight fighter Derek Brunson said he had a "legit source" tell him that his opponent on Saturday night, Uriah Hall has a history of being on performance enhancing drugs.
Then in an interview with Bloody Elbow, Brunson doubled down on the statement without revealing who his source is.
Hall has never failed a PED test in his 19-fight MMA career.
Hall was asked what he thought of Brunson as a fighter, when we spoke to him ahead of his UFC Fight Night 94 bout.. Instead of completing his thought on Brunson, he quickly turned to the PED comments. The Jamaican born-fighter admitted he's a juicer, but not in the manner in which he's being accused.
"I think Derek is just been lucky," Hall told Fightful. "He talks a good game, he’s confident. He’s one of those guys that you will say something and he will just go with it right away which I don’t understand. I don’t know how or why people have been saying something that I am on the juice or something like that. I told that idiot the only juice I’ve ever loved in my life is orange juice. I would never cheat ever especially in this sport where I’ve worked and dedicated my life too. I find it insulting someone would say that especially to me. It just gives more motivation to beat him up."
Hall was supposed to fight at UFC 198 against Anderson Silva. Unfortunately for Hall, he didn't get the opportunity when Silva had to bow out the Monday before the fight to have emergency gall bladder surgery.
When it came to the No. 9 ranked fighter in the 185-pound division's next opponent, he was looking to still fight Silva or go up against Lyoto Machida. Those fights didn't pan out due to Silva taking a fight with Daniel Cormier at UFC 200 and Machida getting suspended for PED violation, Hall decided to give the chance to Brunson.
"I mean, I threw Brunson a bone," Hall stated. "I remember asking to fight again. I threw out Anderson, I threw out Machida. A bunch of those guys were either had something come up, didn’t want to fight or were suspended. I figured people were politics so I said, ‘alright, whose the idiot who would take the bait and I threw a bone at Brunson and he did it. It’s a stepping stone. That’s how I’m looking at it. This is just to get from point A to point B. I’m here to clock in and clock out."
The Team Tiger Schulmann fighter has won two of his last three fights. "Primetime" feels he will take care of business against Brunson, but isn't going to take him lightly.
"Well, obviously I envision my hand being raised but you never know what can happen," Hall exclaimed. "That’s one of the beauties about mixed martial arts. It’s a human chess match. You never know what can happen at any given time. Take the Mousasi fight for instance. He was kicking my ass somewhat and I decided to take care of business because I know he is the type of guy that just comes forward, plays that old school fighting style type of shit that doesn’t work. I’m dynamic, I’m flashy and I’m tricky. So I just took advantage of the opportunity. You never know what’s going to happen. And that’s why I’m excited. It’s the unknown and the unknown is a beautiful thing."
UFC Fight Night 94 takes place on Saturday night from the State Farm Arena in Hidalgo, TX. The main event features a battle of lightweights as Dustin Poirier goes up against Michael Johnson.
