Chael Sonnen On If He'll Appeal Failed Drug Test, Dana White On Who's To Blame
- UFC president Dana White made an appearance on FOX Sports 1 to try and explain everything wrong with the current state of drug testing in MMA. White, who has never been shy when expressing his true feelings, defended his company and fighters. The complete interview with White can be viewed in the video above.
"Nobody is on it. Just to clear the air here, nobody is on TRT. And, we only had five guys out of over 500 that were ever on TRT, and it was absolutely legal. And then the (Nevada) Athletic Commission changed the ruling and said, 'It is now a banned substance, you cannot take it.' There are only really two of our big stars that are dealing with the effects of TRT – Chael Sonnen and Vitor Belfort," White said. "This thing has been bad since day one and I wish that the Commission never let anybody use TRT. They didn't go a very good job of figuring out how to get these guys off of it. When you get off of it, you don't just go cold turkey, there are things that you have to do. If they don't take these estrogen blockers, they can get side effects from it."
White also noted that both that Sonnen and the Commission bear some responsibility for the failed drug test.
"Chael Sonnen is at this point in his life and his career, where he got married and was trying to have children and he was on medicine to help with fertility and have a baby. This is between Chael and the Commission, but the rules should have been laid out better when they said that's it, it's over. Because here is the big problem, too: even when it was legal, the Athletic Commission and all of the doctors were never on the same with page with the (testosterone) ratios and all of these other things. It was always a nightmare, so it had to go away. I'm glad it's gone and we're just dealing with all of the aftermath."
"Both are at fault. I think the Nevada State Athletic Commission could have laid it out better for how they were going to end this thing. What would be banned and what wouldn't be banned for the guys coming down off of it. But again, it's a matter of them not being very educated on TRT. It's the thing that made this whole thing impossible anyway. And it's Chael's fault too, because Chael should have called the Athletic Commission and said, 'This is what my doctor told me I need to do to come down off of this stuff, so here is what I'm taking.' He absolutely should have done that. Because Chael had conversations with his doctors and he's looking at this thing like, 'I shouldn't be in a situation where I have to choose between either my job and the sport and my health, my life outside of fighting.' And he's right about that."
Sonnen was suspended from fighting by the NAC after his failed drug test earlier this week, while Wanderlei Silva was removed from a July fight with Sonnen at UFC 175 after not taking his test. Sonnen was rescheduled to meet Vitor Belfort, who has had his share of issues getting licensed in Nevada, as well.
"For us, we've been the guys who have taken the drug testing head on. We've worked with the athletic commissions to take out-of-competition testing. We are paying big money for some of these guys to be tested. Jon Jones wanted Glover (Teixeira) and him to be tested all the through the lead up to their last fight and we paid for that, too," White said. "There's nobody out there that's doing more for testing than we are. And this whole thing that was blown out of proportion by the story that ESPN did where they said, 'These (testosterone) exemptions were rampant throughout mixed martial arts,' there were only five guys out of 500 that had testosterone exemptions."
- Chael Sonnen plans to fight his recent drug test results until the last minute. The fighter told FOX Sports 1 during an interview that he did nothing wrong or against the rules, and should be allowed to compete at UFC 175 against Vitor Belfort. Sonnen was removed from the fight after a drug test revealed two banned substances.
"Yes, it is on the banned list. But you have to understand, that's for competition. If this was game day, I would not be making any of these statements I'm making to you right now. On game day, you have to come in right. But out of competition, an athlete cannot take an anabolic, he cannot take a performance-enhancer and he cannot take a steroid," Sonnen said. "The former executive director has many quotes out there that I will bring in to the Commission when I appeal this thing, stating that there is a significant difference between game day and the other 364 days of the year."
When asked if he would appeal the suspension, Sonnen simply stated, "Absolutely." In 2010, he was suspended by the California Athletic Commission for not disclosing his use of TRT. The exemption has since been banned by the UFC and NAC.
"I had to take these drugs because they banned testosterone. So to be in compliance, you have to stop with testosterone. Now there's a transition phase, to come off of testosterone healthily. I have a legitimate medical need for testosterone. I was not an abuser. I was a user of testosterone. So when you come off of this and you have a medical need, you must transition," he said. "What you'll take is Clomiphene and HCG. I took Clomiphene and HCG. This also serves as a fertility drug. That was an accident. I was having fertility issues. That's not part of my life that I wanted to share with anybody else. And we had success. I took these substances. They're not illegal and not performance enhancing."