It’s been revealed today that UFC contender Chael Sonnen has failed a random drug test that was completed with the Nevada State Athletic Commission late this past May, the very same test that Wanderlei Silva allegedly ‘ran’ from as the anticipated grudge match between the two fighters approached.
Due to Silva’s refusal to comply, the Brazilian was thus removed from the July 5 UFC 175 card, and replaced by Vitor Belfort who is also scheduled to face an NSAC hearing due to his own failed test from back in February. However, having now tested positive himself for a pair of estrogen blockers – Anastrozole and Clomiphene, Sonnen (28-14-1) has also found himself removed from the event.
The 37-year-old American will be called to an NSAC hearing at a later date, the two-time UFC middleweight title challenger and one time light-heavyweight title challenger was previously suspended at the hands of California’s state athletic commission after a middleweight title fight against Anderson Silva in 2010 when he tested positive for elevated levels of testosterone following defeat in the classic bout.
Sonnen’s use of the once legal Testosterone Replacement Therapy is well documented, and after the controversial drug was recently banned from MMA in March, he spoke out to explain that he will attempt to fight on, however it will likely be a struggle for all those who were users of TRT.
“There’s a lot of moving parts. I don’t have all the answers,” Sonnen said on FOX Sports following the TRT ban. “The bottom line is testosterone is out. Now, as it relates to Vitor, I think this was a very genuine and sincere thing for him. Here’s the problem that I have: a fighter that said seven days ago, ‘I need TRT or I can’t do this,’ and then all of a sudden goes, ‘Well, I’ll just stop TRT.’ I find that very disingenuous.
“I am potentially in that same field. If this retires guys, then it retires guys. The rules are the rules, and the rules need to be followed. Personally, sorry to be long winded about this, but I’m going through this myself, where I’ve had to stop testosterone with the hope that we can find a new way to gain the results of upping testosterone to stay at a healthy level. If it doesn’t work, I may have to stop the sport. And it’s as simple as that.”
Sonnen quickly offered an explanation of the failed test on Jay Mohr’s sports radio show
They changed the ruling in Nevada. Earlier this year they did away with what’s known as TRT — Testosterone Replacement Therapy — in Nevada, and I was on that. So when they changed the rule, we all had to go through a transition phase. For me, for the transition, I had to take a couple of things: one is called clomiphene and the other is called HCG (human chorionic gonadotropin). So this is what we did. And I took my boards out of the water in the meantime, meaning I didn’t fight, I didn’t ask for a license. You had to wait to cross this bridge, if you will.
In the interim, they did a test. I tested positive for these things, which I should have. I took them. They were in my system. That wasn’t a surprise. These aren’t anabolics, these aren’t steroids, these aren’t performance-enhancers. None of that stuff. But they have deemed that they are banned substances.
What’s interesting, in my case, we’re out of competition. These are not things that I showed up with on gameday. This is out of competition due to a rule that they changed. So this is kind of an odd spot for me.
What happens is they do out-of-competition testing, and the lab that they went to is the USADA [United States Anti-Doping Agency] lab. Now the USADA lab is the greatest lab in the world. It’s a very sensitive test. We had done our own tests, at our own labs, and we thought that everything was out of the system. These were not secrets that I took this stuff. This is what you have to take when you’re coming off testosterone. But any rate, it was picked up on their test. Now they can handle that however they want. They can look at that and go, Yeah, this makes sense to us, or they can say, You know what? We don’t like this. And they can do either one. They’re the commission. I just got to be a reactor and live with it. The confusing part is for a non-anabolic, non-steroid, non-performance enhancing agent that is perfectly legal that I need for a healthy life, essentially they’re saying you gotta choose between health and sport.
It’s very tough for me too because I did a number of interviews talking about what I’ve done, whether it’s on UFC Tonight, Canada, UK, Brazil … I couldn’t have told any more people. So when this came back they said, Why did this come back in your system? I said, Why did it come back in my system? Because I took it. I’ve been taking it. I had to take it because you guys changed the rules. So I did feel a little bit frustrated in that regard. And they may listen to me, they may agree with me, but the way this works is I now have to go to a hearing. And that hearing gets kicked down the road who knows how many days. I have a fight in 30 days, there’s no way the hearing will be before then.
There is a little bit of a confusion on the rules. It’s kind of tough where you’re like, Oh, really? This is a banned substance? Where do we find that? Who exactly do we go to for clarity on this? And the commission has always been very clear. Whether it’s the Nevada Commission, and now there is a new guy at the helm [Bob Bennett], but the old executive director [Keith Kizer], I’ve got quotes I downloaded right off the Internet, but he has been very clear that there is a clear distinctions between gameday and out-of-competition testing. Now you could never take an anabolic or anything, I understand that. This is not an anabolic. This is not a steroid. These are just the substances I had to go to transition, who’s also having — this is a very private part of my life I wasn’t planning to share with anybody — but I’m having fertility issues.
