Anthony Pettis reveals shocking incident before UFC 241 as the reason why he's suing USADA

R. Nath
UFC 241 Cormier v Miocic 2
UFC 241 Cormier v Miocic 2

Anthony Pettis last fought at UFC 241 where he welcomed back Nate Diaz after a 3-year layoff. Diaz defeated him handily and Pettis admitted that he fought like an "amateur".

However, what he didn't reveal until recently was the circumstances leading up to the fight with USADA. He dropped a bombshell on Ariel Helwani's MMA Show, revealing that he's set to sue USADA for what happened.

Pettis said that when giving the urine test before UFC 241, the container for the urinary sample cut his right hand, preventing him from fighting to his true potential (H/T MMAFighting):

”I had to fight compromised,” he said . “I gave USADA a chance to make it right, but right now, we’re going through the court. I’ve got to sue them.”

He revealed that coach Duke Roufus pleaded with him to pull out of the fight. However, Pettis didn't want to lose the opportunity to face Diaz and as a result, UFC officials placed tape around the wound and removed it outside the cage to comply with the commission rules.

Pettis said that he doesn't want any other fighter to be affected by this. He believes that the urinary test should be done right after the fight `for it to not affect them:

“I don’t want this to happen to any other fighter,” he said. “I think something needs to change in the rules back there. We should be doing the piss test after we perform. If that would have happened ... I would never have had to deal with a cut on my hand before my fight.”

Duke Roufus was asked about the issue by MMAFighting and he admitted that he regrets letting Pettis fight. He explained how it affected his performance.

”I wish he wouldn’t have fought, because it showed in his performance, unfortunately,” Roufus told MMA Fighting. “Here’s the thing, when it happened, it affects you making a fist and also affects you grappling, because you need your thumb to grab things.”

It's interesting that all of this only came to light recently. Perhaps Pettis was being careful and didn't want to make excuses but there's no denying that it's a flaw with the way the USADA system operates. Pettis certainly makes a point and we hope that this lawsuit results in USADA changing the way they go about with their operations. Otherwise, fighters will continue to suffer.

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Edited by Zaid Khan