IT’S FAIR TO say that the countdown to UFC 189 is now in full swing, with the hype stepping up a notch or two in recent days.
That probably began last Thursday when news emerged from Brazil that there had been some confusion over a drug test administered to Jose Aldo, the UFC featherweight champion.
A representative of the Nevada State Athletic Commission arrived at Aldo’s gym in Rio de Janeiro to take a urine sample from Aldo ahead of his title defence against Conor McGregor in Las Vegas on Saturday, 11 July.
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However, the sample was later discarded when Aldo’s camp and officials from the Brazilian Athletic MMA Commission learned that the Nevada tester didn’t possess a visa to work in Brazil.
McGregor added that he had been tested on 23 May — a claim which was backed up yesterday by his coach John Kavanagh, who confirmed in his exclusive column here on The42that the Irish featherweight gave blood and urine samples during a random test taken while he was attending the UFC 187 event at the MGM Grand Garden Arena.
However, when speaking to reporters in Rio yesterday, Andre Pederneiras — Jose Aldo’s coach — said he had doubts over the validity of those claims… because McGregor never tweeted about it at the time.
“Everything McGregor says is to get attention from the media,” said Pederneiras. “He didn’t even know what was going on here and talked about it.
“He said he was tested on 23 May, but if you look at his Twitter and social media, you won’t see him talking anything about being tested. For a guy that loves to talk about himself, not talking about being tested in an event that important is weird.”
Sound logic, Andre. Maybe you need a visa to use Twitter at a UFC event and Conor just didn’t have one?
Aldo's coach uses bizarre logic to question McGregor's drug-test claims
IT’S FAIR TO say that the countdown to UFC 189 is now in full swing, with the hype stepping up a notch or two in recent days.
That probably began last Thursday when news emerged from Brazil that there had been some confusion over a drug test administered to Jose Aldo, the UFC featherweight champion.
A representative of the Nevada State Athletic Commission arrived at Aldo’s gym in Rio de Janeiro to take a urine sample from Aldo ahead of his title defence against Conor McGregor in Las Vegas on Saturday, 11 July.
However, the sample was later discarded when Aldo’s camp and officials from the Brazilian Athletic MMA Commission learned that the Nevada tester didn’t possess a visa to work in Brazil.
Instead, Aldo was tested 24 hours later by a tester from Brazil, but the incident caused plenty of controversy, with McGregor labelling Aldo ‘a weasel’ via Twitter.
McGregor added that he had been tested on 23 May — a claim which was backed up yesterday by his coach John Kavanagh, who confirmed in his exclusive column here on The42 that the Irish featherweight gave blood and urine samples during a random test taken while he was attending the UFC 187 event at the MGM Grand Garden Arena.
However, when speaking to reporters in Rio yesterday, Andre Pederneiras — Jose Aldo’s coach — said he had doubts over the validity of those claims… because McGregor never tweeted about it at the time.
“Everything McGregor says is to get attention from the media,” said Pederneiras. “He didn’t even know what was going on here and talked about it.
“He said he was tested on 23 May, but if you look at his Twitter and social media, you won’t see him talking anything about being tested. For a guy that loves to talk about himself, not talking about being tested in an event that important is weird.”
Sound logic, Andre. Maybe you need a visa to use Twitter at a UFC event and Conor just didn’t have one?
H/T: MMAFighting.com
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