Hendo: Pride said Big Nog & I probably only clean fighters

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Although Dan Henderson for years made use of the now prohibited but then legal testosterone replacement therapy, he has long advocated for random, comprehensive, out of competition PED testing in mixed martial arts.

I might have been saying it by myself, but I’ve been saying it for a few years now: They need to implement random, no-advanced-notice drug testing, said Henderson to Rick J. Lee during a video interview as transcribed by Brent Brookhouse. That’ll clean everything up. Maybe not everything, but it’ll deter guys from thinking about doing illegal performance-enhancing drugs. If somebody can show up at your door at any time and tell you to pee in a cup or take a drug test, you’re not going to risk certain things because of that. And, I think it’ll just deter that.

The way it was, I knew exactly when I was going to get drug tested. If I was one of these guys that did performance-enhancing drugs, it wouldn’t be a big deal. To know when I was going to get tested – do things prior to that to make sure that I’m getting a little bonus. It’s unfortunate that it’s taken that long to do, but I’m pretty happy that they finally started doing it.

PRIDE FC, where Hendo held held both the light heavyweight and middleweight belts simultaneously, was another matter.

PRIDE was what it is, said Henderson. I had asked about drug testing. They’d always drug test you over there, but it wasn’t for that. It was more for recreational drugs, cocaine and stuff like that. It was more for show. They made a comment that they’d probably only had a couple fighters, me and – I think they said, Nogueira would be the only fighters they had left if that was the case. Who knows what everybody was doing? All I know is that I’m happy they’re doing it now.