Johnny Eblen and Gordon Ryan couldn’t have more opposing views when it comes to anti-doping in combat sports. The Bellator middleweight champion took to X (formerly Twitter) this week to challenge and criticize Ryan’s recent comments on the UFC’s decision to drop USADA and work with a new company , Drug Free International, to run its athlete anti-doping program. Ryan, a decorated grappler, implied in an Instagram post that if the UFC was to ease down on drug testing, it would be good for the sport since performing-enhancing drugs would make MMA more entertaining, and it would raise the level of competition. “If the UFC ‘regresses’ back to the old days, this is amazing news,” Ryan wrote on Instagram. “… The higher the testosterone, the more physical the athletes are, the less prone to injury they are, the faster they recover, the longer they can compete, and the more entertaining and high paced they are. The better they look, the more attention they draw, the more money they make.” Ryan would go on a lengthier elaboration on why less drug testing is a good thing for sports, a stance Eblen took issue with.
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