Fabio Maldonado admits to PED usage in UFC, plans to for Fedor Emelianenko fight

Recently news broke that MMA legend Fedor Emelianenko would be returning to MMA in front of his native Russian fans when he fights UFC veteran Fabio Maldonado under the Fight Nights Global banner in June.

Ahead of the fight, a shocking detail emerged that there would be no PED testing ahead of, or the night of, the fight. Following that announcement, Maldonado admitted to BloodyElbow that he had been using PEDs during the last stretch of his UFC career, and that he plans to do so in his upcoming fight against Emelianenko.

“It’s me against him. Everybody understands these things, right? I’m not trying to make myself look like a victim here. Everybody understands and knows what I will take and what I won’t take. What I can say is that I don’t take those things, but for example, when I was in my final UFC stretch and they had random tests, I was using DHEA, because the doctor told me it’s good for men past 32, it’s good for your skin and your hormones. It wasn’t even a PED. I’m not taking any yet, but I believe I’ll start next week.”

Interestingly enough, this was after the USADA began random out-of-competition drug testing, which many believe is weeding out PEDs in MMA.