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Aljamain Sterling seemingly suspects that TJ Dillashaw might have “found another way to cheat”.
Dillashaw served a two-year suspension from MMA competition due to testing positive for EPO. The former UFC bantamweight champion recently competed in his first MMA bout since 2019. TJ Dillashaw faced and defeated Cory Sandhagen via split decision at UFC Vegas 32 on July 24th, 2021.
On an episode of his podcast, The Weekly Scraps, Aljamain Sterling addressed TJ Dillashaw’s comeback. Sterling stated:
“For him to come back, and do that, and have such a great performance over a top contender like that, throw himself right back into the heat of things; I think it really gets this division juiced up again. No pun intended to TJ – EPO, and steroids, whatever. PEDs; I’ll just say PEDs. It does make you have to question if he found another way to cheat because once again he was able to take a great shot. Some of those shots would’ve put (people out).
“I know they say about your conditioning, but I don’t know. I’m not trying to; I’m just trying to; I just have questions. That’s it. I just have questions. And I think it’s fair to say, ‘Once a cheater, you never know, man, could always be a cheater’. And that’s kind of the way I feel about it.”
Aljamain Sterling praised TJ Dillashaw for his performance against Cory Sandhagen
Despite suspecting TJ Dillashaw of PED use, Aljamain Sterling gave Dillashaw props for his performance against a top-tier bantamweight like Cory Sandhagen. Sterling said:
“But from a performance standpoint, I have to tip my hat off”, Sterling said, praising Dillashaw’s performance. Sterling continued, “He’s one of the guys I’ve always wanted to face. And people asked me a couple of times before, like, dream matchups. I always said Dominick Cruz. That was when Dominick Cruz was on top. Now, obviously, when TJ was on top, he was the next guy I was gunning for. It was Cruz. It was (Renan) Barao. It was TJ.
"And I want to fight the best guys. I want to throw my name in there with the best guys. And I think that’s the way you should come into the sport; with that type of mindset, that type of energy. And that’s what’s gonna really, really take you far.” (*Video courtesy: FunkMasterMMA YouTube channel; H/T Sportskeeda for the transcription)
UFC bantamweight champion Aljamain Sterling is set to defend his title against Petr Yan at UFC 267 on October 30th, 2021. The winner of this fight is expected to defend the title against TJ Dillashaw.
