Earlier this week Forrest Griffin appeared on the ‘MMA Hour’ radio show and revealed for the first time that he received a suspension following his comprehensive defeat at the hands of Anderson Silva back in 2009 when a post-fight drugs test revealed he had taken Xanex.
“I failed my drug test I think for Xanax,” Griffin told Ariel Helwani. “I had a doctor’s prescription, I was just, I didn’t do it before the fight, I did it the night before, I was nervous and I couldn’t sleep.”
It’s surprising that Griffin managed to keep his 30 day suspension a secret all this time, but the reality is that this wasn’t a major crime by any stretch of the imagination.
In fact, even Nevada State Athletic Commissioner Keith Keizer has spoken out on the story and made it clear that Griffin’s actions put himself at more risk than his opponent.
“It’s not necessarily like a PED where you’re increasing your risk to your opponent unfairly,” Keizer tells MMAJunkie. “You’re increasing the risk to yourself. It is a big concern, and that’s one of the reason drugs like that are prohibited to take that close to fight time. So hopefully he’s learned his lesson, and hopefully other fighters who may think about taking something like that that close to fight time can learn from the situation. But it’s very important to get that information out. It’s unfortunate that it’s taken three years.”
So, if it wasn’t a big deal why did Griffin take so long to confess?
“What’s the point? Why add humiliation to a bad situation?” he says.
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