UFC gick tidigare ut med att man planerar att införa en ny antidopningspolicy, då man kommer att testa över 500 fighters året runt, med start den 1 juli i år. Roy Nelson är positiv till den nya inställningen men tror inte att de nya krafttagen kommer göra särskilt mycket skillnad för sporten.
Det här berättar Nelson, via ”MMAFighting”:
It’s kind of one of those things that, I’ve been there, done that. I’ve been doing the random drug tests and out-of-competition kind of drug tests for over three years, so it’s not anything new. Like, I did VADA, which is Voluntary Anti-Doping. I did that two or three years ago, so it’s like, it’s not new. It’s not new technology. The program has been around, available, for the longest time. So, all of a sudden moving that way? It is what it is.
Beskedet om att den nya policyn skulle införlivas kom efter Jon Jones, Anderson Silva och Hector Lombard alla testat positivt under relativt kort tid. Många andra fighters och tränare har sedan hävdat att detta enbart är ett skrap på ytan och en del av ett mycket större problem.
Nelson känner sig osäker på om de nya testerna kommer att vara så effektiva som man förväntat sig:
It’s just one of those things that, I’m happy, but is it really going to make a difference? Because with some of the policies, it’s not really set in stone. Like, you can do cocaine one day and that’s cool because it’s not in-competition… but you’re getting ready for a fight, so it is (in-competition)? It’s just one of those things. You get popped for a steroid beforehand, before the fight actually starts, but we’re still going to let the fight go on? So it really doesn’t really matter — if you catch me, we’re still going to have a fight? So what’s even the sense of having a policy? A policy is just like, ’hey, I can still fight and just be suspended for a year?’ If I only fight once a year anyways, who cares?
If it’d be like, first offense, you’re banned for life, or you’re banned for five years, [then] you’re taking somebody’s money a lot. A year is like, ’oh, I fight once a year anyways.’ But if you’re fighting once every five years, then you might think about it. It’s one of those things that it’s definitely, you could put some sting onto it.
Nelson möter härnäst Alistair Overeem under UFC 185 i Dallas.
