Lyoto Machida believes the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency should’ve gone easier on Fabricio Werdum.

The former UFC light heavyweight champion and current Bellator star called Werdum’s recent suspension “very sad.” Machida (24-8 MMA, 0-0 BMMA) said the UFC anti-doping partner’s results management process is “not fair.”

“They don’t give you much of a right to defense,” Machida, who’s scheduled to face ex-middleweight champ Rafael Carvalho at Bellator Hawaii, told MMAjunkie.

USADA on Tuesday announced a two-year suspension for Werdum, who was flagged for an anti-doping violation in May and temporarily suspended pending the results of an investigation. The anti-doping agency said the ex-champ failed an out-of-competition test conducted April 25, with his urine showing positive for the steroid trenbolone and its metabolite epitrenbolone.

Werdum has yet to comment on his suspension beyond telling fans that he will address the issue in the near future. He’s also fired back at his most vocal critic, former opponent Mark Hunt, who replaced him in the headliner of UFC Fight Night 136 and had some very pointed criticism about his failed test.

Via Instagram:

“Oh hey, look….it’s the fat little Samoan ( @markhuntfighter )bobble-head trying to make himself relevant again by putting my name in his mouth. I’ve got something else you can stick in your mouth: This time, it’s going to be my left knee…… Here’s a little reminder just in case you forgot. Actually you probably don’t remember any of it anyway.

Machida, meanwhile, has stepped to Werdum’s defense and appeared to shed additional light on the circumstances around his friend’s case. He said Werdum’s positive April 25 test was followed by a test 10 days later that came up negative, a reversal which he believes doesn’t indicate intentional use.

“How is the guy going to take something and spend this time doing this math? Like, ‘Now I’m going to stop,’” Machida said. “This doesn’t exist. If he was doing anything – the test before the one that was positive was also negative. That shows a lot of elements of innocence.”

Of course, it’s been proven many times that sophisticated dopers go to great lengths to time their use of banned substances to avoid detection. But to Machida, who served an 18-month suspension while in the UFC for admitting use of a supplement containing a banned substance, USADA is ignoring Werdum’s clean past.

“I’m not saying that his urine wasn’t (positive) – that’s not it,” Machida said. “That, the test said. Great. But the causes – why did this happen? Who is Werdum? What is the athlete’s past? What has this guy done? So all of this needs to be seen with a much broader vision, other than simply ‘he was caught in that test, let’s suspend him for two years.’ That’s the way I see it.”

Werdum’s case revived many of Machida’s previous complaints with USADA, which he claimed didn’t educate him on banned supplements like the one that caused his positive, an over-the-counter product that contained DHEA, a banned performance-enhancer alleged to mimic steroids.

Machida said he took DHEA to relieve stress and denied using it to enhance performance. USADA countered that “The Dragon” had high levels of DHEA in his system and didn’t take advantage of several educational opportunities.

Machida claimed USADA threatened him with a harsher suspension if he took his case to arbitration, which the agency sternly denied. But the ex-champ still believes he was railroaded.

“You’re instructed not to go to trial, because it can be – at least in my case it was like that – because it can be an act of rebellion,” Machida said.

Machida also indicated the anti-doping agency offered to cut his suspension in exchange for incriminating information about other UFC fighters, which is outlined in the promotion’s doping handbook. Rather than do that, he said, USADA should give fighters the chance to rehabilitate themselves.

“Why not use that to benefit the community, benefit the sport?” he said. “One example, in a case like Werdum (they could say), ‘Werdum, you were caught here, let’s make this as short as possible, you’re going to do social work, you’re going to teach at schools, you’re going to sports center in Colorado, in Brazil, in UFC etc., and instruct fighters that you can’t use this, that you need to be careful, and if you do these many hours we can reduce your penalty in, say, half.’ Something a lot more advantageous to society, to the athletes.”

When it comes to the final punishment, Machida believes a fighter’s contributions to the sport should also be a factor.

“Instead of going, ‘You get two years, that’s it,’ and not look at the athlete’s past and not look at what they did for the sport,” Machida said. “With 25 tests, the guy never failed, he never had one notification in his career. Like me, I’d never had anything. And to be judged just by that moment, by that result, that’s very tough. Look at Fabricio’s image, how does it look? ‘He was caught in the doping.’ OK, his urine was contaminated, but we don’t know what caused it.”

Machida said he’s relieved to no longer be subject to USADA’s authority as a Bellator fighter.

“I really like the UFC, and I really liked being there,” Machida said. “But this USADA thing, for every athlete in the UFC, you’re tense. You might not be taking anything and you’re tense. (You ask yourself), ‘Did I take an aspirin for a headache, did I take contaminated water, ibuprofen, whey protein?’ It’s something that impacts you a lot, (and) you develop a trauma. Like, ‘Did I do something wrong?’

“You’re afraid. You’re afraid of everything. And it ends up getting in the way.”

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