Jones was allowed to competed at two separate events with a picogram of the illegal substance in his system, which has lead former UFC Light Heavyweight Champion Lyoto Machida to claim that USADA has lost credibility with how they handled the situation.
”I don’t like to judge anyone. Maybe what USADA is saying really did happen and there’s this contamination from the past,” Machida told MMA Fighting. “But, like, when it’s a game of interests, we have questions and never really know what’s going on, what’s the goal behind all this, and USADA’s intentions and UFC’s intentions. Because of that, I prefer to remain in silence and not weigh in on this because I’m more focused on Bellator now. When I saw different results, different substances and different penalties, man… To me, as a person, it lost credibility. For me, not being part of USADA… You can’t understand the joy I have. Not having that daily stress… You could be doing everything by the book, but there was always this stress. What I’ve been hearing is that it takes a bit of their credibility away. Double standards. We can see that like every other (entity) it has flaws, too, flaws that we can’t say are intentional, if they are intended to protect (someone), or if it’s just flaws in the system, in the process, but it does have flaws.”
Machida and Jones have clashed in the Octagon before, with Jones scoring a second round submission win at UFC 140.
The former light heavyweight champion has had his issues with USADA in the past, but says that fighters never really know whats going on with the drug testing program.
”To tell you the truth, I was always very tense about all that,” Machida said. “If you ask any UFC fighter, there’s tension in the air because you never know what’s happening, you never know if there was a contamination, and penalties usually are really harsh… Usually. The penalty was harsh for me and others I know. On the other hand, there are special cases. I’ve seen different cases we don’t even know how to classify.”
Bellator 222 takes place on Friday, June 14 from Madison Square Garden in New York, New York with no main event announced at this time. Fightful is providing live coverage of the event, which streams live on DAZN.
