USADA Suspends TJ Dillashaw Two Years, Cody Garbrandt Reacts

Former UFC bantamweight champion TJ Dillashaw will sit on the sidelines until 2021 after multiple test results showed a banned substance in his system.

The USADA announced that Dillashaw tested positive for recombinant human erythropoietin (rHuEPO), which is used to produce red blood cells. The most recent test result came earlier this year around his loss to flyweight champion Henry Cejudo.

Dillashaw vacated the bantamweight belt upon first hearing of the failed drug test. His suspension was not announced by USADA until Tuesday. Dillashaw can return to action in January 2021.

Below is the complete release from USADA on Dillashaw:

USADA announced today that TJ Dillashaw, of Yorba Linda, Calif., has accepted a two-year sanction for a violation of the UFC® Anti-Doping Policy after testing positive for a prohibited substance.

Dillashaw, 33, tested positive for recombinant human erythropoietin (rHuEPO) as the result of an in-competition urine sample he provided on January 18, 2019. rHuEPO is a synthetic hormone used to stimulate the body’s production of red blood cells, thereby increasing oxygen transport and aerobic power, and is a prohibited substance in the class of Peptide Hormones, Growth Factors, Related Substances, and Mimetics under the UFC Anti-Doping Policy, which has adopted the World Anti-Doping Agency Prohibited List.

“We all know the pressures to win at all levels of all sport are real and intense,” said USADA CEO Travis T. Tygart. “It is exactly why strong anti-doping efforts are necessary to protect clean athletes’ rights, health, and safety, and to ensure that those who do succumb to these pressures and decide to break the rules will be held accountable in a real and meaningful way, as in this case.”

Dillashaw’s two-year period of ineligibility, the standard sanction for a non-Specified Substance under the UFC Anti-Doping Policy, began on January 18, 2019, the date his sample was collected.

Cody Garbrandt, who has fought Dillashaw twice before with the bantamweight belt on the line, sounded off on his former Team Alpha Male teammate via Twitter.