Miesha Tate offers possible explanation for TJ Dillashaw drug test finding
Early on Wednesday morning, TJ Dillashaw took to Instagram to announce that he was vacating the UFC bantamweight title because one of his UFC Brooklyn drug tests turned up an ‘adverse’ finding.
Former UFC bantamweight champ Miesha Tate believes Dillashaw’s situation could be similar to that of Jon Jones, in that his failed drug test could be the product of his previous ingestion of banned substance, rather than recent ingestion.
“I think we’re going to see more cases of this.” — @MieshaTate reacts to TJ Dillashaw’s failed USADA drug test and why this is likely far from the last case we see@RyanMcKinnell pic.twitter.com/cGUBaS2ulF
— MMA on SiriusXM (@MMAonSiriusXM) March 21, 2019
“There was a point when it wasn’t strictly enforced, and I do believe that probably the majority of people were using,” Tate state on MMA Tonight on SiriusXM (transcript via MMA News).
“It’s possible that he did it at one point in his career before it was a big no-no. And now, it’s a no-no, and maybe he’s clean, but maybe something is popping up that maybe he used a long time ago that he never got caught for.”
Miesha Tate believes we could easily see more cases like Jon Jones’ — and potentially like Dillashaw’s — as USADA drug testing continues to evolve.
“If it happens with Jon Jones…yes, he got busted, and now it’s reoccurring, but I think we’re actually going to see more cases,” she said. “As USADA is getting down to a picogram…what is that, like 50 millionth of a gram of salt or something ridiculous like that?
“If they’re that specific, if anybody’s used anything at one point in their career, then it’s possible that these picograms are still floating around.
Miesha Tate also raised the interesting point that Dillashaw’s extreme weight cut down to 125 pounds might have had something to do with the adverse finding on his drug test.
“So he dropped down to 125, I mean, he cut all of his body fat,” she said. “If anything was gonna pop up that was from a long time ago…”
This article first appeared on BJPENN.COM on 3/21/2019.
Topics:
Miesha Tate TJ Dillashaw UFC
