USA TODAY: TRT issue overshadows UFC on FX 8's Belfort-Rockhold headliner

(This story appeared in today’s edition of USA TODAY.)

Luke Rockhold is upset, and not without reason.

The UFC middleweight and former Strikeforce champion, 28, travels to Brazil to make his promotional debut against former UFC champion Vitor Belfort on Saturday at UFC on FX 8 (FX, 9 p.m. ET).

But it’s not just Belfort’s considerable natural abilities that Rockhold will have to contend with once he gets there.

That’s because Belfort (22-10 MMA, 11-6 UFC) is one of the beneficiaries of the controversial testosterone-replacement therapy (TRT) treatment to which UFC President Dana White recently voiced his opposition.

Saying it had become “a way for people to cheat,” White vowed increased testing of those fighters who sought therapeutic-use exemptions that would give them permission to use synthetic testosterone — which helps build muscles and shorten recovery time — while training for UFC fights.

Belfort isn’t the only aging fighter to take advantage of the TRT treatment, but his case is a particularly tricky one.

The Brazilian tested positive for the anabolic steroid 4-Hydroxytestosterone after a fight in Las Vegas in 2006.

The Nevada State Athletic Commission suspended him as a result, and now the NSAC’s executive director, Keith Kizer, says the commission would be unlikely to grant Belfort a testosterone exemption.

Of course, nobody knows how that scenario might play out because Belfort hasn’t needed to apply for a license in Nevada. He hasn’t fought in the USA since 2011, and his bout with Rockhold (10-1 MMA, 0-0 UFC) will be his third in four outings in Brazil.

The newly established sports commission there, the Comissao Atletica Brasileira de MMA, granted Belfort permission to use TRT before his last bout, a TKO victory against Michael Bisping in Sao Paulo in January.

“It (tees) me off a little bit that (Brazil) is the only place that he’s fighting, and I think he needs to be dealt with,” said Rockhold, who referred to Belfort as “the main culprit right now for TRT.”

Rockhold isn’t the only one to recognize that the UFC’s scheduling seems to be enabling Belfort’s recent testosterone use.

The question is why and whether the organization that helped save MMA in North America by, as White has often said, “running toward regulation,” will eventually force Belfort to go through the application process in the UFC’s home base of Nevada.

“I think Nevada should be the standard for all over the world,” Rockhold said. “I don’t think it should vary from state to state and country to country.”

That, at least in theory, is the idea behind regulatory bodies such as the International MMA Federation, whose technical committee is chaired by UFC vice president of Regulatory Affairs Marc Ratner.

For now, though, the UFC seems content to let Belfort stay in Brazil, where his testosterone use faces fewer obstacles.

For the latest on UFC on FX 8, stay tuned to the UFC Rumors section of the site.