This Saturday's UFC on Fox 19 card suffered a late blow on Wednesday when Lyoto Machida declared the use of a banned substance, resulting in the cancellation of his co-main event bout with Dan Henderson.
The UFC addressed the issue in a statement posted to its website:
Machida stated that he was unaware that the substance was prohibited both in and out of competition and, in accordance with the UFC Anti-Doping Policy, his disclosure of usage will be taken into consideration by USADA during any potential results management and adjudication process.
Given this information, UFC officials have elected to remove Machida from his scheduled bout against Dan Henderson this Saturday in Tampa, Florida. Henderson will be re-booked for a new bout in the near future.
But UFC officials weren't the only ones to weigh in. Soon after the news broke, Henderson took to Twitter to express his own displeasure.
P.O.S. -No respect https://t.co/03O5oM7sM9
— Dan Henderson (@danhendo) April 13, 2016
It was a bold and interesting take. Although Henderson has never failed a drug test or otherwise run afoul of any MMA rule or regulation, he does have a well-documented history of using legal but potentially performance-enhancing substances.
Henderson, 45, openly used testosterone replacement therapy (TRT) until its widespread blanket ban in 2014. He was able to legally use TRT because he received a therapeutic use exemption to do so.
According to the Orange County Register's Carlos Arias, the medical purpose of TRT is to treat hypogonadism, a fairly rare condition in which the male body does not produce enough testosterone on its own.
After the TRT ban, Henderson told MMAJunkie's Ben Fowlkes that he "just kind of quit cold turkey," with no apparent serious side effects.
Hendo Strikes while Irony is hot
— superCalo (@superCalo) April 13, 2016
Respect https://t.co/fCiDgQZUFd
Henderson (31-14) is 2-3 since the announcement of the ban, with his two wins coming against Mauricio "Shogun" Rua and Tim Boetsch.
On Wednesday, Machida cited ignorance of the rules as the reason for the violation. In more than one way, this may be the perfect, mirror opposite of Henderson's situation from a few years ago.
That must be why Henderson apparently didn't see any similarities between his own circumstances and those of Machida—hence his note that he has no respect for him.
