Donald Cerrone says he has found the “fountain of youth” in steroids.
After coming up winless in his last seven bouts inside the Octagon, ‘Cowboy’ officially hung up his 4oz gloves and 10-gallon hat in July after suffering a second-round submission loss to fellow UFC veteran Jim Miller. More than three years removed from his last victory, Cerrone rode off into the sunset. Recently, ‘Cowboy’ appeared on the Calabasas Fight Companion on YouTube to discuss all things MMA alongside some former co-workers.
During the conversation, Donald Cerrone openly revealed that since retiring, he has been utilizing performance-enhancing drugs and praised their benefits with show host Brendan Schaub and former UFC light heavyweight champion Quinton ‘Rampage’ Jackson
“I was just literally in Vegas yesterday and I was telling everybody like, ‘I understand why steroids are illegal.’ Now that I’m injecting them into my body and I feel like I’m f*cking 20 again,” Cerrone openly admitted. “The training would never stop. You could just literally train as hard as you wanted to and wake up the next day recovered and fresh.”
Discussing the crackdown on PED usage in the UFC, Schaub revealed that prior to the implementation of USADA in 2015, it was much easier to skirt the rules via TRT exemptions.
“Especially when the three of us fought in the UFC, it wasn’t that strict,” Schaub revealed. “Then USADA came along in 2015. That’s when it got dicey. When USADA came it was super strict, but before 2015, they were giving out TRT exemptions. You know you got Brock Lesnar and Alistair Overeem. When Alistair fought Brock, you’d never seen a more… He could have finished third in Mr. Olympia. That boy was jacked.”
‘Rampage’ Blames Chael Sonnen For the End of TRT Exemptions in the UFC
Continuing to discuss the era of testosterone replacement therapy exemptions in the UFC, ‘Rampage’ believes that the ban on TRT comes down to the actions of one man who simply took it too far.
“I’ve never done drugs,” ‘Rampage’ stated. “I’ve done testosterone, but I’ve never done it while I was fighting in the UFC. When it was legal I did it for a little bit, but then… Who was that that f*cked it up for everybody? I fought him. The one that talks a lot. I fought him in Bellator. Chael Sonnen. He f*cked it up for everybody because he took his levels too high.”
In 2008, Chael Sonnen received a TRT exemption from the Nevada State Athletic Commission for a condition called hypogonadism. Two years later following Sonnen’s near-defeat of Anderson Silva at UFC 117, the California State Athletic Commission revealed that Sonnen’s testosterone-to-epitestosterone ratio was 16.9:1, more than four times its legal limit of 4:1.
In 2014, the NSAC voted 4-0 to end all exemptions for TRT citing that less than one percent of men required TRT therapy without prior steroid abuse playing a role. Many applauded the decision at the time, calling it the end of state-sponsored cheating inside the Octagon. One year later, USADA would be implemented.
