Judging by his recent comments Chael Sonnen appears to be playing a game of ‘catch me if you can’ with USADA after his two year steroid suspension came to an end.
Sonnen is now toying with the idea of returning to fight in the UFC at the age of 39, admitting that he definitely has “that itch”, and as such been enrolled in USADA’s drug testing program.
This is the same Chael Sonnen who tested positive for elevated levels of testosterone back in 2011, leading to a one year suspension, and also tested positive for HGH, EPO, anastrozole and hCG in 2014, which led to his second ban.
with that in mind, Sonnen doesn’t sound too confident that he’s going to pass with flying colors this time around, particularly with USADA’s drug testing procedures now being far more thorough.
“I don’t want to be tested like everybody else,” Sonnen told Ariel Helwani on The MMA Hour radio show. “I want it to be on a curve. I’d like a curved system. Oh, you had seven things last time, this time you’ve only got three. That’s pretty good. That’s the kind of test I’m looking for. And I’m not sure that’s out there.”
Sonnen claims he’s just a little concerned that some of the cocktail of illegal performance enhancing drugs that he took in the past may still be in his system.
“I took a bunch of stuff that you can’t take and I want to make sure [it’s out],” Sonnen said. “I thought that made sense. Like yeah, I don’t want to jump in this thing if it’s just all gonna blow up in my face. [USADA] laughed like what I was saying was crazy. No, that’s exactly what happened.”
The thing is, Sonnen has candidly admitted on a number of shows that USADA’s drug testing in the past didn’t neccessarily catch him out on every PED he was using at the time, so there is a chance that he could be hoping to sneak a few past them on this occasion.
No-one can say for sure though. Sonnen has always been a master at throwing up so much smoke and mirrors that it’s hard to tell when he’s joking and when he’s telling the truth.
One things for sure though. If Sonnen is somehow able to navigate through the relentless barrage of USADA testing that’s no doubt headed his way, then he’s immediately going to step right back into his familiar bold, brash, trash-talking ways.
In fact, he’s already started.
“There has never been a middleweight like me. The next closest guy is Anderson Silva. I’ve got two 10-8 rounds against Anderson Silva. That’s just the truth. I have no equal at middleweight.”
