Years before TJ Dillashaw was flagged for anti-doping violation, Cody Garbrandt was the first to reveal his former teammate was using performance-enhancing drugs.
The former bantamweight champions had a heated exchange in the build-up to their UFC 217 title fight in November 2017, with ‘No Love’ accusing Dillashaw of showing the whole Team Alpha Male how to use steroids.
‘The Viper’ denied the allegations, saying he was tested everyday when he was still with the Sacramento-based gym.
“Cody Garbrandt: Oh yeah, the guy is on everything. He’s on everything.
TJ Dillashaw: Yeah, I’m on everything. They come and test me every day, but I’m on everything.
Cody: You’re the one that showed everyone how to do it on Team Alpha Male, so…
TJ: Yeah, I’m the one that’s now bringing it in.
Cody: Look at him, he has nothing to say. I speak the facts.”
Watch the scene below:
Cheating Scandal
Dillashaw went on to finish Garbrandt in the co-main event of UFC 217 to recapture the UFC bantamweight championship before scoring another resounding victory in their rematch the following year.
But Garbrandt had the last laugh as his former teammate tested positive for a banned substance in 2019, which resulted to vacating the bantamweight belt and a two-year fighting suspension.
“I’ve hidden out, I haven’t done any interviews, I haven’t done – I’ve just kind of hidden away from – there’s things I’ve been wanting to say, but I didn’t, because I don’t want to create any excuses,” Dillashaw said.
“Let’s start off, first and foremost, I cheated. I don’t want to run around that, that’s why even I announced it when USADA was coming out. I didn’t want to create excuses.”
T.J. Dillashaw (red) beats Cody Garbrandt (blue) in a first-round TKO during UFC 227 at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, Sat., Aug. 4, 2018. @tjdillashaw #UFC227 pic.twitter.com/poaocpikcY
— Hans Gutknecht (@HansGutknecht) August 5, 2018
Owning Up
It was found out that Dillashaw took the substance ahead of his flyweight title showdown with Henry Cejudo, which he lost by way of knockout.
“I wanted to drop the weight class to go to the 125s, and I played it off to how easy it was going to be. “I can do this, no problem, I always cut weight,” he said.
“And I pushed my body to the extreme. About six weeks out, my body started to crash, I started to get tired, I started feeling I didn’t want to wake up for practice. I test everything.”
“I test my hair for toxins, I test my saliva for hormone levels – I want to be the most optimized athlete I possibly can. And I started crashing.”
“I’m obviously going to own up that I cheated, I got caught – it’s a rough one man. It’s hard not to hate yourself a little bit. To – I don’t know. It’s a tough one.”
Breaking: TJ Dillashaw has been suspended two years by USADA. Tested positive for EPO prior to Jan. 19 title fight against Henry Cejudo. Dillashaw did not contest the suspension. pic.twitter.com/R8zYWJinxN
— Brett Okamoto (@bokamotoESPN) April 9, 2019
(Featured Image Source: YouTube/ Nipple Of Odin MMA and Instagram/ TJ Dillashaw)