Pearson's cornerman claims Jackson fighters weren't tested in New Mexico

If there was anything notable, pre-fight night, about the UFC's recent New Mexico card, it was how heavily the card featured Jackson's MMA talent. Four fighters from the MMA supercamp were featured on the main card three of them in the top three bouts. It makes sense, Albuquerque is home turf for Jackson-Winklejohn fighters, and their gym has fostered as much or more top tier MMA talent as anyone in the game. However, according to Ross Pearson cornerman, Dean Amasinger, there was a little more at play than prominent card placement. Amasinger spoke to MMAJunkie about what he felt were some shady drug testing standards being applied by the New Mexico commission.

"Ross was drug tested before the fight, which is perfectly normal," he told MMAjunkie. "That's absolutely fine, and all this stuff is supposed to be random. But when Ross came back from the drug test, he said to me, ‘I've seen the list; none of the Jackson guys are on the drug test list, or the New Mexican guys who are fighting on the card.' And so I went and checked and that was the case.
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"With [Sanchez] being from New Mexico and specifically Albuquerque, there's obvious connections there and obvious potential conflicts of interest," Amasinger said. "They don't have a lot of experience with bigger shows, and I think that's another factor that's played into this happening."

By themselves, these kind of allegations might raise little more than an eyebrow. And it certainly can't be said that the local fighters were gifted with easy matchmaking, but in light of the controversy surrounding Diego Sanchez's decision win over Ross Pearson, it's understandable how an appearance of unequal testing standards might put the Alliance MMA camp's hackles up even further than they already were. Amasinger revealed that he and Pearson's management have reached out to Dana White and Joe Silva with the hope of, if nothing else, potentially securing a win bonus for Pearson.

Until official word comes down from the UFC brass however, I suspect that this is going to be an open wound for Alliance MMA. Bloody Elbow will be sure to keep you updated with any further developments and information if and when it becomes available.