Stephan Bonnar has finally broken the silence months after testing positive for steroids following his fight against Anderson Silva last October. According to the light heavyweight, he only took the banned anabolic agent, Drostanolone, after an injury during a period of his life when he thought he’d never fight again.
Bonnar hadn’t fought in almost a year when he got a call to fight Anderson Silva at UFC 153 in Brazil. The event was hastily put together in the midst of an injury crisis which had beset the promotion.
Silva, who was coming off a triumphant and much celebrated title defence against Chael Sonnen, was fighting in his home country for the first time since he defended the middleweight championship at UFC 134 versus Yushin Okami. He made short work of Bonnar; treating him with utter contempt for the first two minutes before ending his night with a knee to the solar plexus.
After the fight, Bonnar filed a drug test and had since gone on virtual media silence. He spoke to The MMA Hour‘s Ariel Helwani on Monday for the first time since the incident (h/t MMA Fighting):
“Believe it or not, there are some therapeutic uses to some of the banned substances,” he said, explaining his use of Drostanolone. “Bottom line, I wanted to get my strength back. I was very weak. My body didn’t feel good, my joints didn’t feel good. That was my goal.”
Bonnar told Helwani about his decision to take the banned drug following two surgeries he had on his knee and his subsequent desire to get back into training.
But since the failed test, Bonnar, a once hugely popular fighter, has become a virtual pariah.
Dana White and Lorenzo Fertitta, who once had a very close relationship with Bonnar, haven’t spoken to him since his failed test:
“That was the hardest thing, too,” he told Helwani. “You know, there’s no way if I thought there was any possibility of it showing up, that I would have taken the fight. I finally get the opportunity I’ve been begging for in vain for so long. I thought I’d go out there and put on a better fight, but then stuff like this happens. It’s like I came to his house and took a s— on his carpet. It just kills me. I’m like, ‘Come on, Dana, give me this opportunity,’ and then I make him look like that. I’m really sorry.”
The fighter who once fought in an epic showdown with Forrest Griffin back in 2005 says, due to his tarnished name, he’s decided to retreat into the background. He has no plans to fight again.
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