Junior Dos Santos Believes USADA Makes Fighters Guilty Until Proven Innocent
Former UFC Heavyweight Champion Junior Dos Santos and two other UFC fighters were recently cleared by USADA after their failed drug tests were due to a contamination found at a Brazilian pharmacy that was giving them supplements.
Dos Santos believes now that when it comes to USADA, fighters are guilty until proven innocent.
“They stopped my whole career to investigate the thing,” Dos Santos said on The MMA Hour. “I think that goes in the completely opposite direction of the law. I’m innocent until proven guilty. In this case, it’s different — you’re guilty until you’re proven innocent. So, yeah. This is not good, man. Especially in my case, that I knew I didn’t do anything wrong and I was going all through this situation. It was a very bad feeling.”
The former heavyweight champion is now able to return to action and does so against Blagoy Ivanov in the main event of UFC Fight Night Boise.
While the fighter lost a lot during his provincial suspension from USADA, one thing the former champion regained was a once damaged reputation.
“I feel the truth was found and everybody knows that was a tainted supplement,” Dos Santos said. “It wasn’t my fault, it wasn’t my intention. There’s always negative people, that they keep saying bad things about you. They hold on the negative things. But I feel like I got my reputation back. It’s very, very important to me.”
UFC Fight Night Boise takes place on Saturday, July 14 from the Century Bank Arena in Boise, Idaho with Junior Dos Santos and Blagoy Ivanov headlining. Fightful is providing live coverage of the event, which airs live on Fox Sports 1.
