SAN JOSE, Calif. – Rory MacDonald and Jon Fitch didn’t anticipate walking into fight week with steroid accusations lingering over their Bellator 220 headliner.

But the apparent anger that motivated MacDonald’s longtime coach to call Fitch a cheater brought little more than a shrug from the opponents scheduled to fight.

Fitch (32-7-1 MMA, 1-0 BMMA) dismissed Zahabi calling him a cheater and downplayed media headlines on the subject as “outrage porn – people getting clicks.” He said he wouldn’t have known about it but for reporters’ questions.

MacDonald (20-5 MMA, 2-1 BMMA) for his part, said his coach is an independent person. He didn’t approve or disapprove of Zahabi’s outburst.

“I was a bit surprised, because I’d never really heard him talk like that, especially in an interview,” MacDonald told MMA Junkie at Thursday’s media day for Saturday’s DAZN-streamed event at SAP Center. “But I guess he really has a strong conviction for that in our sport. But he’s his own man. He can speak what he believes in his own interviews.

“I can’t blame him. I don’t really know too much history about Jon and his steroids, but apparently, he’s been caught before. That’s on him, I guess. That’s on his conscience.”

MacDonald clarified that he believes it’s wrong for fighters to take performance enhancers and said he’d object if he knew Fitch wasn’t clean. But, he added, “I can’t go point my finger and be like, ‘Jon’s on it.’”

“It’s out of my control, and so I’m not going to stress about it,” he said. “If he’s doing it, that’s on him. It’s him and the commission and their testing, and if he’s caught, then he’s going to have to pay the consequences.”

Fitch concedes Zahabi’s accusation didn’t come out of thin air. He did indeed take illegal testosterone in 2014 and serve a nine-month suspension. He claims his use was motivated in part by a battle with depression, and he’s sorry he skirted the rules.

“I’m not proud of it, but it definitely put me in a better position going through it,” he said.

But that’s as far as Fitch will go in revisiting the issue. He has no love for media he believes is more in to public relations than journalism, and he has no desire to confront Zahabi.

Asked what he’d say face-to-face to the famed coach of Georges St-Pierre, Fitch replied, “It’s not worth my time. If it makes him feel better to think (that), then OK.”

More pressing to Fitch is the prospect of potentially fighting three times this year as he tries to win the Bellator welterweight grand prix. The first stop could be the biggest yet if he captures the belt put on the line by MacDonald.

After a failed bid for the middleweight strap, MacDonald is more concerned with living up to his potential in the cage.

Neither fighter would mind the $1 million that awaits the tournament winner.

For more on Bellator 220, check out the MMA Rumors section of the site.