Luke Rockhold Thinks Lyoto Machida Is Clean, But Black House Isn’t
Former Strikeforce middleweight champion Luke Rockhold has a fairly big task ahead of him at UFC On FOX 15 in April, as he prepares to face former 205-pound champion and middleweight title challenger Lyoto Machida. The Karate master’s style has seen him defeat many great fighters over the years, and the pairing with “Rocky” should make for great viewing.
In light of recent drug busts, and the apparent nature of the PED (performance enhancing drug) epidemic in MMA, Luke Rockhold questions whether Machida’s Black House team is clean. Check out what “Rocky” told Gio & Jones of CBS Sports:
“I’m not a fan of (cheating), and I definitely am pushing for more drug testing, more random blood testing and whatnot,” Rockhold said. “Especially (within the) Black House camp. There’s been (three or four guys from that camp who have been caught cheating) and (Lyoto) Machida is a Black House guy.”
“I think he’s a clean fighter, but I’m definitely pushing (for more testing),” Rockhold said. “I want a clean sport, like baseball. We need to get on their level. Let’s start cleaning things up a little bit here.”
Black House fighters who have been busted in the past include Rafael Cavalcante, Kevin Casey, and more recently Anderson Silva.
One factor that pushed the UFC’s new stance on drug testing is the sensationalized failed drug test by “The Spider”. The former UFC middleweight champion and MMA legend has helped the sport move forward with his fantastic displays of skill, but now he is being used as a cautionary tale:
“It’s a sad day in MMA when Anderson Silva gets popped for steroids, no doubt. It’s an epidemic right now. Theres a lot of guys (who have been caught), but things are moving in the right way. They’re blood testing, they’re pre-fight testing, and things are changing. So I’m happy to be a part of that. I’m pushing hard. I like the blood tests. I’m a clean fighter. I always will be.”
“Just random people stopping in and out of training camps and stuff like that,” Rockhold said. “There’s always a couple bad seeds that pop in. But luckily, I have such a great training camp. We have the cleanest, strongest camp. We push out the bad seeds. We want to keep our camp clean.”
AKA (American Kickboxing Academy) has always been known as a tough camp, featuring such champions as Cain Velasquez and former Strikeforce GP winner Daniel Cormier, so Rockhold will likely be extremely well prepared for “The Dragon”””.
Will PEDs ever be completely eliminated from the sport? Probably not, but we can look forward to a much cleaner future with the rigorous testing from WADA (World Anti Doping Agency). As far as the Black House camp is concerned, do you think they should be trying to weed out the junkies, or is it just a rotten few like “Rocky” says?
