Andre Pederneiras refutes claims that his fighters are “juicing”.
Not a single UFC fighter who trains out of Nova Uniao has been popped for PEDs. However, Amilcar Alves, who competes for Shooto, failed an in-competition drugs test which sparked up the whole debate again.
Former featherweight champion Jose Aldo had a lot of accusations thrown his way in the build up to his fight with Conor McGregor, which only intensified after a bizarre incident in which an NSAC authorised tester was detained at the gym after taking a urine sample of the then champion.
However, Scarface was tested eight times in 2016 under the USADA programme and passed every one.
Many cite the poor form of Nova Uniao fighters since the USADA system came into force as ‘evidence’ that they were juicing in the past. Fighters who train at the gym have gone 4-12 in the UFC since July 2015 which is when the promotion signed the landmark deal with USADA.
Nova Uniao head coach Andre Pederneiras spoke to Portal do Vale Tudo to refute this particular claim and reckons the allegations stem from jealousy.
“I think people are butthurt at a team that remained in Brazil, kept training and kept picking up poor people and turning them into champions. It hurts them too much, because they were brought up at high level gyms since they were children and now they are losing to Brazilians who had nothing to do with that.”
Pederneiras then claimed ignorance about banned substances, hinting that USA has more of a culture, or at least more facilities to facilitate PED use than Brazil.
“Who do you think has more athletes capable of winning an Olympic medal, Brazil or USA? Which one you think has more laboratories that can create substances that can’t be detected in antidoping tests? That’s my answer to those people.”
“They accuse me of something they have much more knowledge about than I do. They have so many Olympic champions, we have a few. If we had access to that, it would be some old procedure to a country that has been winning medals in so many sports for a long time.”
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