TJ Dillashaw believes that it was the right decision for the Irish superstar Conor McGregor to withdraw from the USADA testing pool.
The former two-division UFC world champion McGregor broke his shin in his most recent fight against Dustin Poirier in 2021. ‘Notorious’ has not been tested by USADA, the UFC’s PED testing agency, in recent months. On Twitter, the whiskey mogul implied that he did withdraw from USADA testing to heal his broken leg. In a since-deleted Tweet, Conor McGregor explained:
“Everything was fully disclosed before I began. The state of allowance for athletes to recover from injuries as horrific as the one I overcame must be assessed. My thoughts are with weidman and Anderson Silva. The 3 of us, and only us, know the severity of this injury.”
USADA explained that regardless of injuries, all fighters will need to test clean for a minimum of six months before their return to the octagon. Unless given an exception similar to Brock Lesnar at UFC 200.
TJ Dillashaw supports Conor McGregor
Former bantamweight king TJ Dillashaw believes that it was the correct decision for Conor McGregor to withdraw from USADA testing. In an interview with Brendan Schaub on Food Truck Diaries, TJ Dillashaw explained:
“We don’t have an offseason. We’re tested 365 days a year. You don’t get time to heal. You don’t get these down times. The guy is in movies, he’s doing all this sh*t, his leg is broken in half, and even if he were to take steroids to recover himself, he can’t compete with it in his system. So he’s not gonna have an advantage from taking what he’s taking. All he’s doing is healing. If you’re telling me that a guy can’t heal, who’s gonna make not only himself but the UFC hundreds of millions of dollars, that makes no sense not to. He’s not doing anything wrong.”
Dillashaw concluded by saying:
“I know he’s not fighting on the sh*t, so whatever. If he can heal the right way, he actually has a career – because I mean, you break your leg like that, you might never come back.” [Transcript courtesy of MMA Junkie]
See the full interview below: