Cory Sandhagen has spoken out on T.J. Dillashaw’s history with EPO use.
Sandhagen will meet Dillashaw in the main event of UFC Vegas 32. The bantamweight tilt will take place this Saturday night (July 24). This will be Dillashaw’s first bout since January 2019. He’s been out of action due to a USADA suspension for EPO. Dillashaw had been the UFC Bantamweight Champion and had to relinquish the gold.
Ahead of fight night, Sandhagen told ESPN’s Brett Okamoto that he finds Dillashaw’s positive test results from the Henry Cejudo fight to be “gross.”
“There’s lines that you don’t cross in the sport. You shouldn’t try to cheap-shot people, you shouldn’t go outside the rules when you’re in there, and you definitely shouldn’t do anything that is illegal in order to give you a huge advantage in a fight. As a competitor and just kinda as a person, really the only word that I can kind of come up for it is [gross].
“It doesn’t bother me. T.J. has to live with T.J.’s decisions. I have to live with my decision but it is a little bit gross in my opinion to put yourself in an illegal advantage in a one-on-one combat scenario in something that you really love. It’s gross, if there’s a word for it it’s kinda just gross.”
A victory for Sandhagen could very well propel him to a UFC bantamweight title shot. Following a quick submission loss to Aljamain Sterling, Sandhagen ended up steamrolling Frankie Edgar and Marlon Moraes.