Garbrandt wants ‘scumbag’ Dillashaw’s past samples tested

Former UFC men’s bantamweight champion Cody Garbrandt reacts to T.J. Dillashaw’s two-year USADA ban for EPO.

Once teammates, Cody Garbrandt and T.J. Dillashaw soon became fierce rivals, with Dillashaw twice getting the better of Cody in UFC men’s bantamweight title fights.

While Garbrandt is now on a three-fight losing streak, he’s somehow in a much better position than Dillashaw, who accepted a two-year USADA suspension after testing positive for EPO (recombinant human erythropoietin). Dillashaw relinquished his title — he was going to be stripped anyway — and of course he’s coming off a 32-second TKO loss to Henry Cejudo in an ill-fated attempt to become flyweight champion.

Garbrandt has long accused Dillashaw of PED use — including specifically EPO — and has evidently been proven right. An interesting nugget from ESPN’s Brett Okamoto noted that another one of Dillashaw’s tests from last December was re-analyzed and also tested positive for EPO. According to Okamoto, “the reason it went undetected initially, is that a special test is required to reveal EPO, and that test is not run on every single sample.”

That EPO isn’t tested on every single sample is certainly interesting and a story in itself, but the focus here is on Garbrandt’s reaction. Once Cody caught wind of this, he didn’t hold back his thoughts on wanting more of TJ’s tests to get put through analysis again.

Garbrandt’s other defeat came against Pedro Munhoz last month at UFC 235, and he also made it known that Munhoz tested positive for steroids a few years ago, therefore making all three of his losses against guys who failed drug tests. However, he’s obviously self-aware that he also played a role in his own defeats.

While we won’t see Dillashaw fighting again until 2021, Garbrandt says he intends to return at the end of this year.