Luke Rockhold on Anderson Silva: 'A cheater is a cheater to me'
When the UFC announced earlier this year that the promotion would be introducing an entirely new drug testing program for the athletes on their roster, middleweight contender Luke Rockhold was one of the first people to applaud the move.
Rockhold has long been a staunch supporter of better drug testing in MMA, not to mention stiffer penalties for fighters who return a positive result for performance enhancing substances.
Still, Rockhold is reserving judgment before getting too excited because while everything the UFC is introducing sounds great, until the plan is implemented it's just talk.
"I'm excited to see what they're planning on doing. They are talking about extending penalties and suspensions, but they started right off the bat with a one-year suspension of Hector Lombard, which is no different than what they did before," Rockhold said when speaking to FOX Sports.
"Of course they hit him with a fine that was a little bit more, but I don't believe a fine really tells the tale. You've got to suspend them and make them feel it. Money is money, but take time away from these guys. Make them feel it."
One person in particular who may or may not feel the brunt of these new drug testing standards is former UFC middleweight champion Anderson Silva, who failed a pre-fight drug screening as well as his post-fight test administered following his bout with Nick Diaz in January.
Silva is widely regarded as one of the greatest MMA fighters of all time and a huge list of athletes on the UFC roster look up to him and the accomplishments he's achieved over the last decade. So, while Silva was busted for using performance enhancing drugs, an unusual amount of fighters have come to his defense since his test failures were revealed earlier this year.
"I just can't see him consenting to cheating," former UFC lightweight champion Anthony Pettis said about Silva prior to his last bout in March.
Lyoto Machida, who is Silva's teammate and Rockhold's next opponent, said that he believes the former champion is 'a victim' and didn't believe that he would knowingly ingest any kind of performance enhancing drug.
Rockhold falls on the other end of the spectrum. While he respects all of Anderson Silva's career accomplishments and understands why so many people feel the need to defend him, at the end of the day he cheated and there's no grey area to it.
"I don't understand it. A cheater is a cheater to me and he should pay the penalties, it should be no different," Rockhold said. "Everybody looks at it different because he doesn't have the physique that shows off like Vitor (Belfort) and a lot of other guys have a lot more size to them.
"I think people just didn't want to believe because they looked up to him for so long. A cheater's a cheater in my book."
When it comes to longer suspensions for drug testing infractions, Rockhold stands by that as well even when regarding a fighter like Silva, who is closing in on 40 and would likely be forced out of the sport forever if he received a minimum sentence of four years, which is one of the proposed penalties being discussed under this new UFC referendum.
"I'm 100-percent behind it. I'm on board for four years," Rockhold said. "A lot of people say they should never come back. If you cheat in this sport, you should feel it. Take away a huge f---ing portion of their career because this is fighting.
"We're not playing ball sports here. You're coming in here with a deadly weapon. We're not shooting basketballs. We're out there fighting and trying to hurt each other. One year, two years, I think four years is great."
Rockhold says there should be no exceptions to that rule just because of name value so while it may end Silva's career, what's the good of having a penalty if it doesn't extend to everybody in the sport?
"Anderson Silva has his hearing coming up and everyone is talking about it differently because it's Anderson Silva. Everyone should be treated the same. It shouldn't matter if you're Anderson or any other fighter," Rockhold said.
"Are you going to take steroids if you know you're going to get suspended for four years? I think a lot of guys are going to rethink their situation."
