Junior dos Santos shocked the combat sports community last week after new pictures of the jacked 39 year-old Brazilian made the rounds on social media. “Cigano” appears to be in the best shape of his career ahead of his Fabricio Werdum rematch under the Gamebred Boxing banner on Sept. 8 in Jacksonville.
So what’s his secret?
“I’m putting in great work, and right now, we’re not going through USADA,” Dos Santos told Morning Kombat (transcribed by MMA News). “It’s been great because I can take my pre-workouts, I can take my [fat] burning, I can take all the supplements that I couldn’t before. It’s been great. I’m feeling great, I’m eating good, and I’ve always taken care of my health.”
Well, almost always.
Dos Santos (21-10) was regularly monitored by United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) while competing for UFC and had his “soul torn apart” by the drug testing organization after popping for the masking agent hydrochlorothiazide back in summer 2017, later attributed to a tainted supplement out of Brazil.
Now free of the “too strict” standards, Dos Santos can enjoy his “vitamins.”
“I was always in great shape and things,” Dos Santos continued. “But right now, [because] we are able to not having a problem using our vitamins, our supplements; everything, you know? It’s a different thing and then you can see the result. Here you have a virgin body right here, so whenever you give it something good for it, it’s going to react right away.”
Werdum, no stranger to USADA, has been looking pretty jacked himself in recent weeks.