United States Anti Doping Agency (USADA) has yet to reveal what exactly former Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) Bantamweight champion TJ Dillashaw popped for after the agency found an “adverse finding” in a sample taken from “Viper” stemming from his loss to Henry Cejudo earlier this year in Brooklyn, New York.
As a result, TJ gave up his 135-pound strap and was suspended for a whole year by the New York State Athletic Commission (NYSAC).
According to former women’s 135-pound champion Miesha Tate, she seems to think TJ’s case is similar to that of current UFC Light Heavyweight champion Jon Jones, saying that while Dillashaw may be clean now, that may not have always been the case.
“There was a point when it wasn’t strictly enforced, and I do believe that probably the majority of people were using,”said Tate in a recent interview with Sirius XM Fight Nation (via BJPenn.com).
“It’s possible that he did it at one point in his career before it was a big no-no. And now, it’s a no-no, and maybe he’s clean, but maybe something is popping up that maybe he used a long time ago that he never got caught for,” she added.
“If it happens with Jon Jones…yes, he got busted, and now it’s reoccurring, but I think we’re actually going to see more cases. As USADA is getting down to a picogram…what is that, like 50 millionth of a gram of salt or something ridiculous like that? If they’re that specific, if anybody’s used anything at one point in their career, then it’s possible that these picograms are still floating around.”
Indeed, Jon continues to test positive in drug tests stemming from an initial failed test more than a year-and-a half ago. Still, “Bones” is adamant he never intentionally took anything that would give him an advantage inside the Octagon.
According to some of Dillashaw’s former acquaintances, he did ride dirty early on his career. Furthermore, “Cupcake” says TJ’s brutal cut down to 125 pounds may have also aided in the “adverse finding.”
“So he dropped down to 125, I mean, he cut all of his body fat,” she said. “If anything was gonna pop up that was from a long time ago…”
While USADA and TJ dig deeper to find out what exactly caused the positive test, UFC will now have to keep rolling on without “Viper” as its bantamweight king. That means two deserving combatants will fight for the vacant strap in the near future.
And there are already more than a few players (like this one and this one) throwing their names in the cage.