- Chael Sonnen explained why he believed the commission running drug tests on him made it look like he was cheating
- “The Bad Guy” said even NBA superstar LeBron James has been using PED
Chael Sonnen educated people about performance-enhancing drugs and how they made him somewhat of a cheater at one point in his career.
Apparently, Chael wasn’t clean
Like some of his fellow former MMA fighters, Sonnen is no stranger to being suspended for banned substances. However, “The Bad Guy” argued that as a professional athlete competing in a prestigious promotion, he was indeed taking supplements to make him better. Therefore, it shouldn’t be labeled as flat out cheating because they didn’t know it was illegal until the time commission says so. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have taken it in the first place.
“Oh, I wasn’t clean. Oh, heaven’s sakes… They tricked me. It used to be an IQ test, you used to know when the test was going to be then they come out with something called out of competition testing… this is not within the protocol… Well they got performance enhancing, those are positive terms then they call it drug at the end to make it negative.. it’s medicine right? this is legal and appropriate medicine that does make you better. All medicine makes you better… like I would never go to a doctor and go, ‘Doc, I feel great can you bring me down a notch? Of course it’s to make you better. They said that to me, I was in the commission here and they said, ‘Did you know this could give you an advantage?’ I said, ‘Guys, I wouldn’t have taken it.’ And they sat there, they were dumbfounded, they couldn’t believe this response like well, I can’t believe your questions. Of course it’s meant to make you better,” Sonnen explained on Flagrant podcast.
LeBron knows it too
Sonnen went on and said that in competitive sports, performance-enhancing drugs are typical, especially Erythropoietin, commonly known as “EPO.” In fact, Sonnen claimed that NBA superstar LeBron James does EPO as well.
The former UFC title challenger pointed out that EPO increases red blood cells to help athletes perform better for a longer period of time.
“If the world understood what LeBron did like other basketball players will hear what LeBron does… If you knew what these performance enhancers did, then you would know why it does matter… We have the same drug guy. I know exactly what he’s doing but there’s only one golfer that follows the big three and the big three is EPO, growth hormone, testosterone. That’s the Lance Armstrong diet. There’s one golfer but it’s Tiger Woods like, yes it does matter… trust me that it matters. EPO matters. It’s the reason LeBron takes it. It matters and if other basketball players understood what it did, EPO increases your red blood cells which gives you endurance so you can play all game long… it’s the king of performance enhancers… EPO is king,” he added.
Sonnen has been retired since 2019 but he came clean about still taking some testosterone boosters to this day.
“I’m currently taking something they call HCG which is human chloronic gynotropin but it just UPS your natural testosterone. It’s all about testosterone,” he revealed.
Throughout the course of Sonnen’s MMA career, he tested positive during drug tests three times, most notably in 2014 when the Nevada State Athletic Commission suspended him for two years for testing positive for multiple performance-enhancing drugs, including EPO.
