Despite UFC’s New, Bold Drug Policy, Michael Bisping Says Fighters Are Still Willing to Cheat

“If you’re not cheating, you’re not trying,” once said former light heavyweight champion Tito Ortiz following a fight.

He was accused of grabbing the fence during the bout, but that mentality is shared by those that use performance-enhancing drugs to gain an advantage, according to middleweight contender Michael Bisping.

The Ultimate Fighting Championship launched an aggressive campaign to weed out PED users in 2015. In June, the UFC enlisted the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) to administer the anti-doping program. USADA executives called the move, “the first all-encompassing, independently administered, anti-doping policy for a professional sports organization.”

The measure requires all UFC athletes to provide their whereabouts to USADA and be available for testing “any place, any time with no notice.”

The sixth-ranked middleweight believes the policy has had an immediate impact, but says cheaters are still going to cheat.

“When you look at a lot of the fighters now, you are seeing a difference in physiques. That goes without saying, you see a difference,” said the 36-year-old contender. “We are seeing people test positive, but it is human nature. If these people are willing to cheat in the first place, they’re going to try to continue to cheat. They’re going to try to continue to manipulate the system.”

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Bisping faces former 185-pound champion Anderson Silva in the UFC Fight Night 84 main event on Feb. 17 at the O2 Arena in London. It will be Silva’s return bout after serving a year-long suspension for testing positive to steroids leading up to and after his UFC 183 bout against Nick Diaz in January 2015.

Bisping has losses to two fighters that have been accused of abusing Testosterone Replacement Therapy: Chael Sonnen and Vitor Belfort. He was also knocked out cold by Dan Henderson, a fighter that was on TRT when therapeutic use exemptions where acceptable. Bisping has always had a strong stance against PED users and considers them cowards.

“At the end of the day, if you take performance-enhancing drugs you’re a coward and just because they’re bringing in advanced testing doesn’t change the fact that you’re still going to be a coward, and you’re still going to try and cheat the system,” he said. “People are still going to do it.”

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