NEW YORK, NY - NOVEMBER 04: TJ Dillashaw reacts during his UFC bantamweight championship bout against Cody Garbrandt during the UFC 217 event at Madison Square Garden on November 4, 2017 in New York City. (Photo by Mike Stobe/Getty Images)
Henry Cejudo claims the only reason TJ Dillashaw retired was to get out of the USADA testing pool
Henry Cejudo has a reason as to why TJ Dillashaw decided to retire from MMA.
With Dillashaw having to go back under the knife due to his shoulder, he decided to retire from MMA. He would likely be out for another year so decided he would end his career, but his former rival, Henry Cejudo believes the former bantamweight champ only retired due to the fact Dillashaw wanted out of the USADA testing pool.
“Is T.J. Dillashaw really retired?” Cejudo said on his YouTube channel (h/t MMAFighting). “The first thing that comes to mind was — which I don’t think he’s dumb enough to do that — maybe he got busted again. I don’t think that’s the case. I think T.J. Dillashaw is getting surgery again which I believe that’s true, and I don’t think he wants USADA knocking on that door every other week. Guys, it gets annoying. As much as I love USADA, it’s a lot of tests you guys. It takes a lot of time and effort and time away from your family. So, me automatically thinking T.J. Dillashaw’s retiring, I think it’s just a thing to get him out of there and not get tested by USADA. I guarantee you with T.J. Dillashaw they’re probably taking blood every single time and that stuff just is not cool.”
Of course, a lot of talk about Dillashaw leaving the testing pool is due to the fact Conor McGregor is reportedly out of the pool right now due to his injury. Yet, Henry Cejudo does think TJ Dillashaw truly is retired but wouldn’t rule out the former champ returning sometime in the future.
“Do I believe the retirement?” Cejudo said. “I believe he’s out, but I believe when he’s starting to get ready to come back he’s gonna put his name back in the hat. He is one of the greatest bantamweights of all time, but I just think that asterisk of him — now you start to wonder if this dude was always fair. If he was always clean and honest. I think that’s the biggest thing. I don’t know, it’s hard for me to compliment T.J. Especially when he only lasted 32 seconds with me.”
