Dana White Addresses Chael Sonnen’s Failed Drug Test (Video)

White on if this positive drug test implies other athletes are on drugs: “Nobody is on it. Just to clear the air here, nobody is on TRT. And, we only had five guys out of over 500 that were ever on TRT, and it was absolutely legal. And then the [Nevada] Athletic Commission changed the ruling and said, ‘It is now a banned substance, you cannot take it.’ There are only really two of our big stars that are dealing with the effects of TRT – Chael Sonnen and Vitor Belfort. This thing has been bad since day one and I wish that the Commission never let anybody use TRT. They didn’t go a very good job of figuring out how to get these guys off of it. When you get off of it, you don’t just go cold turkey, there are things that you have to do. If they don’t take these estrogen blockers, they can get side effects from it. Chael Sonnen is at this point in his life and his career, where he got married and was trying to have children and he was on medicine to help with fertility and have a baby. This is between Chael and the Commission, but the rules should have been laid out better when they said that’s it, it’s over. Because here is the big problem, too: even when it was legal, the Athletic Commission and all of the doctors were never on the same with page with the [testosterone] ratios and all of these other things. It was always a nightmare, so it had to go away. I’m glad it’s gone and we’re just dealing with all of the aftermath.”

White on who’s at fault – Sonnen or the Nevada Athletic Commission: “Both are at fault. I think the Nevada State Athletic Commission could have laid it out better for how they were going to end this thing. What would be banned and what wouldn’t be banned for the guys coming down off of it. But again, it’s a matter of them not being very educated on TRT. It’s the thing that made this whole thing impossible anyway. And it’s Chael’s fault too, because Chael should have called the Athletic Commission and said, ‘This is what my doctor told me I need to do to come down off of this stuff, so here is what I’m taking.’ He absolutely should have done that. Because Chael had conversations with his doctors and he’s looking at this thing like, ‘I shouldn’t be in a situation where I have to choose between either my job and the sport and my health, my life outside of fighting.’ And he’s right about that.”