Rising featherweight contender, Janay Harding reveals she was not surprised by the recent news that Cris Cyborg failed a USADA test. The Australian says she saw it coming and believes it is definitely cheating as well as being bad for the sport.

“I think Cris Cyborg is an incredible athlete and I have seen her sessions and how good her work ethic is but in my personal opinion based on the people I’ve seen use any kind of growth, it was only a matter of time. Even if it is a masking agent that gets picked up, it is still bad for the sport and shines a negative light on the other athletes that are working extremely hard without it. It is essentially cheating and when you add this aspect into a sport like MMA, it does make the difference between knocking someone out or killing them, it’s a very fine line and something I’m strongly opposed to.”

She welcomes the possibility of Cris Cyborg proving speculators wrong, and says it would be a shame for her to get a ban considering she is “nearing the end of her career”.

“I’m still hoping the investigation doesn’t amount to anything and she just has one of those bodies and myself and everyone else who speculates is wrong, as she has had some major achievements in her career and changed a lot of people’s opinion on the authenticity of WMMA. It would be a shame to have her laid off when she is nearing the end of her career and body clock so a year ban or whatever consequences they give would impact her career a lot.”

Meanwhile, whilst Cyborg’s future in the division currently seems uncertain Harding is planning to make her rise. This Saturday will see the biggest fight of her career when she takes on Bellator veteran and number seven ranked featherweight in the world, Arlene Blencowe. A win for Harding would no doubt see her enter the featherweight top ten and position herself for an opportunity to perform as part of UFC’s new featherweight division.

Janay Harding will challenge Arlene Blencowe and her number seven world ranking this Saturday in the co-main event of Legends MMA 1. The event will take place from Jupiters Gold Coast in Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia and will be aired live on pay-per-view, worldwide on FITE TV from 4am EST, 9am BST.

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