At this stage we simply don’t know whether a scheduled title fight between current UFC heavyweight champion Junior dos Santos and Alistair Overeem is going to take place or not after Overeem failed a pre-fight drugs test recently in Las Vegas.
The early reaction was that there would be virtually no chance of Overeem being allowed to fight, but now there’s been some indications the bout could still take place after the UFC went ahead and applied to get the fighter a license to fight at the UFC 146 show on May 26th.
If Overeem is somehow able to get the Nevada State Athletic Commission to grant him a license then that opens up a whole new can of worms in terms of the morality of allowing a fighter who’s alledgedly been using illegal performance enhancers to compete in the Octagon and dos Santos, who himself passed a drugs test at the same time as Overeem, has made it clear he believes it wouldn’t be a fair fight.
“If the athletic commission and the UFC want, I’ll fight him,” dos Santos told the Globo site in his native Portugese. “I am a fighter and will be there to fight, but it is sure to be a disrespect to MMA and how serious this is sport. This will also be unfair, it will be unfair to me. I’ve never used these devices to gain strength.
“If Overeem is more aggressive and stronger, the more he will resist blows and it will be difficult for me. If I lose it will be unfair. He will not have fought better than I have fought [if he’s] doped.”
Like fellow fighter Kenny Florian, who’s also spoke out against illegal PED use this week, dos Santos believes that more stringent testing is required to clean up the sport after a spate of incidents like this involving high profile stars like Chael Sonnen, Nate Marquardt, Cris ‘Cyborg’ Santos and ‘King Mo’ recently.
“I think the right thing to do is blood tests on fighters, as it’s done in the Olympics. Not the urine, since the blood is easier to detect these illegal substances, We want to know who the best really is. Not to know the best liar.”
