Does anyone wonder if after cutting all that weight to go to 25, TJ went to the EPO as a crutch for just one fight to make up for his energy loss? Or is his excuse BS and he always used it? I do give him props for owning it tho versus going all dick pills on us.
My view on PED's has become much more developed and nuanced since the UFC implemented USADA and I also started to get tested monthly for a job I had (I failed multiple times for false positives - sudafed and immodium AD ). I once thought if a fighter pops, that must mean they are guilty and always were, until seeing USADA pop guys for nothing burger OTC snake oil pills (DHEA) and realizing there was much more going on. Even in other sports, like horse racing, we are seeing the complexities of modern testing muddy the sport and horses pop for things like human cough syrup because the groom peed in the stall and the testing is so sensitive it picked it up, or a string of horses pop for coke because the groom snorted a line and the 'picos' on his fingers made the horses pop (coke would have 0 pharmacological value to a race horse).
TJ was always a cardio machine wrestler in high school and college and that was just his style. I am sure he used before the Cejudo fight but I also think his talent, hard work and mindset are the real reasons he succeeded, and I would not doubt if he was clean for a majority of the fights in there. Some fighter can take all the roids in the world but cave when it gets tough (i.e. Vitor), but a guy like TJ is as gritty and no quit as they come and no juice will account for that old school wrestler mentality. And after tonight, I think we again learned this PED subject is way more complicated and nuanced than many want to imagine it is, and this "everyone is on steroids/steroids give people magic powers" is simply not in keeping with reality.
