It will be a long while until we see Chad Mendes fighting in the Octagon.
Mendes, one of the best featherweights in the world, was hit with a two-year suspension after the United States Anti-Doping Agency notified him of a failed drug test.
‘Money’ was said to have tested positive for banned growth hormone GHRP-6 and was subsequently handed a lengthy competition ban.
And after coming to terms with the fact that he won’t receive another paycheck from his employer until 2018, Mendes has broken his silence on how the positive test came about.
“It was GHRP-6. Before all this stuff came out I had no idea what that was. I don’t even know what that is and I started doing a bunch of research. This isn’t even a steroid, it’s a peptide. It’s basically an anti-aging type peptide,” Mendes told KHTK Radio, as transcribed by Bloody Elbow.
Mendes, who was coming off the back of consecutive defeats for the first time in his career, explained that the substance was contained within a cream he was using to combat a skin issue.
“I have suffered from plaque psoriasis my entire life,” he said. “I’ve had that since I can even remember. I remember getting on the wrestling mat as a kid and people saying, ‘Ah you have a giant ringworm!’. It’s itchy all the damn time.”
USADA has a lengthy list of banned substances and the UFC’s anti-doping partner encourages all athletes to research any supplements or treatments to ensure that there are no traces of anything that could trigger a positive result.
And as disappointed as Mendes is, he has accepted the fact that he was not thorough enough in speaking to the VP of Athlete Health and Performance Jeff Novitzky to double-check the lotion in question.
“I broke the rules. Did I use it? Of course,” he continued. “I didn’t go to USADA and make some BS story. The only other thing that I started using that was new was the lotion, and sure enough GHRP-6 was one of the damn ingredients. Whether it’s intentional or not, that’s breaking the rules. I basically said, ‘alright I broke the rules.’”
That's if we ever see him again… https://t.co/wykpD8VcZG
— SportsJOE (@SportsJOE_UK) July 22, 2016
Already Mendes’ name has wrongly been used in conjunction with steroids as that is the go-to banned substance for fans to arrive at once a positive test result is confirmed but the 31-year-old encourages people to actually inform themselves on what he tested positive for as it was merely an oversight on a banned substance rather than a concerted attempt to use performance enhancers.
He said: “It’s been rough man, you get a lot of ignorant people in the comments and people in the media writing stuff that isn’t true and then headlines coming out and then people believe whatever they read.”
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