UFC light heavyweight Anthony Smith is currently embroiled in a war of words with former two-division champion Conor McGregor. Smith expressed disapproval over McGregor’s withdrawal from the USADA testing pool, insinuating that McGregor had been taking steroids. McGregor blasted Smith on Twitter, telling his fellow fighter to “keep my name out of your f****** mouth”, and now in a recent appearance on Believe You Me, Smith has fired back.
“He made my whole point by having this freakout. He said he had to do it because he wasn’t healing correctly, and the break was so bad that the percentages were really low. I’m not even questioning the reason, I get it. If there’s something out there that can help me heal that I can do legally, I totally would. Because I would heal a lot faster.
Anthony Taylor Fires Back at McGregor Twitter Tirade
But, it’s not even his reasoning that I’m questioning. What bugs me is guys like Anderson [Silva], and guys like Chris Weidman, and myself, I’ve had lots of bad injuries and we didn’t have the ability to step out the USADA pool, get yourself healed, and then come back with no repercussions. That was my issue.”
Smith remained adamant that he was not accusing McGregor of cheating. He simply feels that it is unfair for other fighters not to be offered the same treatment.
“You said, ‘Technically, he’s not breaking any rules.’ That’s because different rules apply to him. I don’t have that capability.
In the USADA rules, the only way you can get out of the pool is if you’re no longer in a contract with the UFC or you retire. As far as the rules are written, that’s in their rules.
Is that the rule? I don’t know. That’s how it seems to be. If that was the case, I think a lot more fighters would be taking advantage of that. But also it could be taken advantage of, if that makes sense. Like they could take advantage of the healing properties but also there’s going to be guys that are going to want to game the system. Did he break any rules? No. Because there are no rules. He doesn’t have any rules.
He was pissed. I called him out, said something about it, it was viewed a lot, media wrote s***** headlines, it triggered him. I think, deep down, Conor still is a fighter. So, I bet, deep down, I bet he gets it. I bet he understands why that’s bothersome for some people. But, is he going to say that? No, never.
I never once said that Conor McGregor was breaking rules, and I think that was the insinuation, that he was cheating.” Whose side are you on? Let us know in the comments.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CnlYZb6myrg
