5 UFC fighters who tested positive for PEDs and came clean about it
Performance enhancing drugs (PEDs) have long been a problem in the UFC, with countless numbers of fighters, including UFC champions, testing positive for them over the years.
Usually, when a UFC fighter tests positive for performance enhancing drugs, they deny it and give a myriad of excuses. But a handful of fighters have instead come clean.
Telling the truth about their PED use often doesn’t mean that these fighters receive any more sympathy or respect from UFC fans, but it does give them slightly more credibility than those who choose to deny it.
So with this in mind, here are five UFC fighters who used performance enhancing drugs and came clean about it.
#5 T.J. Dillashaw (former UFC bantamweight champion)
One of the most infamous cases of a fighter testing positive for performance enhancing drugs in recent years was former UFC bantamweight champion T.J. Dillashaw. He was suspended by USADA in early 2019 following a positive test for the banned substance EPO, and was subsequently stripped of his UFC bantamweight title.
Interestingly, Dillashaw was a fighter who’d been accused of PED usage on numerous occasions over the years leading up to his drug test failure, in particular by bitter rival Cody Garbrandt during their feud in 2017 and 2018.
Unlike other fighters who’d tested positive for drugs and denied it, Dillashaw was always open and honest about his use of EPO.
Following his suspension, the former UFC champ admitted that he’d used EPO to help with the grueling weight cut that he put his body through in order to make the 125-pound flyweight limit for his January 2019 clash with Henry Cejudo.
Dillashaw stated that he used the substance to combat the early signs of anemia that were beginning to show during his weight cut, stating that he probably couldn’t have taken the fight otherwise.
“I’m not mad I did it, because I don’t think I could have taken the fight. I’m obviously going to own up that I cheated and got caught. And it’s a rough one. It’s hard not to hate yourself a little bit. I don’t know.”
The former UFC champion is now set to return this weekend against Cory Sandhagen following his two-year absence, and given that USADA have been testing him stringently leading into the fight, it would appear that he’s now clean.
Dillashaw clearly made a major error in using EPO, but plenty of people, including former UFC middleweight champ Michael Bisping, have stated that they respect him more for coming clean on the issue.