Lyoto Machida Reacts to Fabricio Werdum’s USADA Suspension

Lyoto Machida reacts to Fabricio Werdum’s suspension from the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency (USADA).

Werdum was suspended for two years after testing positive for trenbolone and its metabolite epitrenbolone. Trenbolone is an anabolic steroid. Werdum said he’s currently working with the UFC and USADA to determine what happened.

Machida knows what it’s like to undergo a lengthy suspension under USADA. “The Dragon” said that USADA doesn’t take much into account when making decisions:

“How is the guy going to take something and spend this time doing this math? Like, ‘Now I’m going to stop. This doesn’t exist. If he was doing anything – the test before the one that was positive was also negative. That shows a lot of elements of innocence. I’m not saying that his urine wasn’t (positive) – that’s not it. That, the test said. Great. But the causes – why did this happen? Who is Werdum? What is the athlete’s past? What has this guy done? So all of this needs to be seen with a much broader vision, other than simply ‘he was caught in that test, let’s suspend him for two years.’ That’s the way I see it.”

Werdum was scheduled to take on Aleksei Oleinik tomorrow (Sept. 15) before being popped by USADA. Mark Hunt will take his place in the main event. Time will tell if Werdum can prove he didn’t knowingly take the banned substances in order to reduce his suspension.