Junior dos Santos is still ‘scared’ of USADA

Last year, Junior dos Santos was notified of a potential violation by the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA). Ultimately, dos Santos was cleared of any wrong-doing, as it was  deemed he’d ingested a tainted supplement — but only after a nightmarish few months of investigations into his case.

In the wake of this debacle with USADA, dos Santos is dreading the possibility of the whole situation repeating itself. In his eyes, if it happened once, it could happen again.

“I’m a very positive guy,” Dos Santos said in a fantastic interview with MMA Fighting‘s Guilherme Cruz. “I always consider the possibilities in a positive light, so I did expect to prove my innocence, but I was afraid. I was afraid that somehow we wouldn’t get to the real result. I don’t know what’s USADA’s thought process and how they judge a situation like this, especially because it was not that hard to be solved considering the amount and the substance they found in me. But it wasn’t.

I spent nine months out and it was horrible. The problem is that you’re found guilty before anything else. You’re found guilty until proven innocent. That only happens with USADA. The law says you’re innocent until proven guilty [laughs]. It’s a pretty bad situation and I don’t wish anyone to go through it, especially those who have done nothing. It affected me a lot, but I consider myself a strong person, both mentally and physically. I’m happy that it’s in the past and, God willing, won’t happen again.

I have a fight now, and every time [USADA] comes, I try to show them everything I’m taking. I show everything, because I’m kind of afraid. I don’t know. It happened once when I did nothing. God forbid it happens again, so I get scared. That bothers me a lot.”

What do you think of these comments from Junior dos Santos?

This article first appeared on BJPenn.com on 7/2/2018.