Chael Sonnen appeared on FOX Sports 1 yesterday to give his side of the story just hours after it was announced that he had failed a random drug test administered by the Nevada State Athletic Commission last month.
Sonnen tested positive for two banned substances, anti-estrogen drugs Anastrozole and Clomiphene which he claims he was using only to help him come off Testosterone Replacement Therapy (TRT) after an NSAC ruling back in February that the treatment was now banned.
“These are not performing enhancing drugs,” Sonnen said. “These are not anabolics. These are not steroids of any kind.
“[The NSAC] changed the rules, and I’ve got to comply with the rules. I don’t resist that at all. However there is a transition period, and I couldn’t have been more open or more transparent, whether it was UFC Tonight, whether it was different interviews in different places. Anybody that I could tell, that I could talk to about this, I did. These are the medications that you have to go on to lead a healthy life, and if you’re asking me to choose between my health and my sport, that’s not a choice I can make. I’ve got to choose health.”
“I have a legitimate medical need for testosterone,” Sonnen continued. “I was not an abuser. I was a user of testosterone. So when you come off of this and you have a medical need, you must transition. Now what you’ll take is Clomiphene and HCG. I took Clomiphene and I took HCG. That is what happened.”
On top of that, Sonnen claims he was also taking these substances as he wanted to have children with his wife, but was having fertility problems.
“This also serves as a fertility drug. That wasn’t on accident. I didn’t know I was having fertility issues. That’s not part of my life I wanted to share with you or anybody else. That can be very embarrassing, but now it’s out.”
According to Sonnen the treatment was effective in that regard and if being punished by NSAC was the price for becoming a father then he’ll gladly take that.
“Throughout my career I have had a number of labels. But in nine months, I will have the label of parent and father. And if I have to go through this and choose between having the label of being a father and a parent, or having the label of being an athlete, I am going to choose, every single time, parent and father. I know what I have done, and if I had to do it again, I would do the exact same way twenty more times.”
Sonnen also states that he is unhappy with the way that the tests were administered since it didn’t give him the opportunity to disclose what substances he was taking, and also believed that he shouldn’t have been punished since he was out of competition when the test was taken. As a result he intends to appeal the decision.
Watch his full interview on FOX Sports 1 below.
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