Filed under: UFC
CHICAGO — After King Mo Lawal tested positive for a banned steroid this month, he said he believed the substance got into his system because it was in a supplement that he legally purchased over the counter.
UFC President Dana White says that excuse isn’t good enough.
White said Thursday that he thinks all professional athletes need to know for sure what they’re putting in their systems, and that any fighter who tests positive for a banned substance needs to deal with the consequences, regardless of the reason.
“If you get caught doing something, admit you did it,” White said. “The whole ‘Somebody put something in my system that I didn’t know about?’ I mean, who here lets someone put s–t inside them that you don’t know what it is? If you go to the doctor and he gives you a pill, ‘Doc, what am I taking this for?'”
White said he wishes fighters who test positive for performance-enhancing drugs would simply admit that they were trying to gain an unfair advantage, rather than plead ignorance about the contents of the supplements they were taking.
“I don’t buy that s–t,” White said. “Own up to what you did. Listen, it’s out there, it happens, and sometimes everybody makes mistakes.”
White said he hopes the UFC’s new policy of testing all new fighters at the time they sign their first UFC contracts will deter young mixed martial artists from taking performance-enhancing drugs.
“The up-and-coming guys, you’re already talented, you’re already fast, you’re already strong, do not ruin your career by taking this junk that will affect you for the rest of your life,” White said.
And as for the established fighters who test positive and say they didn’t know the ingredients of the supplements they were taking? White doesn’t want to hear it.
“I don’t buy it,” White said. “Anybody that’s ever said that they didn’t know what’s being put in their body is full of s–t.”