TJ Dillashaw’s fellow fighters appear to be reacting with a healthy dose of scepticism after the 36-year-old announced his decision to retire from the sport due to a shoulder injury.
Instead, several have suggested that the former bantamweight champion intends to follow a similar path to that of Conor McGregor, who it emerged recently had quietly come out of the UFC’s mandatory USADA drug testing pool while he healed up from the broken leg he suffered in the Octagon last year, with the insinuation being that enabled him to use PED’s to aid his recovery without being punished.
The fact that Dillashaw was previously stripped of his title and banned for two years after testing positive for EPO back in 2021 has only added to the belief among some of his peers that there’s more to his retirement than meets the eye.
“I wish Dillaroids a speedy recovery,” bantamweight champion Aljamain Sterling said. “I don’t want any fellow colleagues to have long lasting physical damage. Whatever he needs to do to get back to 100% is fine in my book. Just know a 2nd smoke sess will always be here waiting for him.”
“So by him “retiring” he gets to exit the USADA testing protocols? I bet he comes back after a full recovery,” Ricky Simon speculated.
“The McGregor loophole,” Arnold Allen stated.
“So we are all against competing while on PEDS, but how do you guys feel about someone purposely removing themselves from the pool to use them to heal from serious injury? Is this cheating? Unsportsmanlike?” Chris Curtis asked.
