It might be Nick Diaz who is quoted as saying “They’re all on steroids,” but this was something that Julianna Peña heard from someone unexpected.
Before she was a top contender at bantamweight, who is set to fight Amanda Nunes for the title at UFC 269, Peña was a young upstart competing on, and eventually winning, The Ultimate Fighter. During this time, she was training a bit at American Top Team, working there as early as 2014.
This was something that Peña talked about while speaking in an interview on The MMA Hour, but she had some interesting information to reveal. She explained that she attended the gym at a time where the other fighters were doing some shady things.
“That was when I won The Ultimate Fighter when everyone was down at the gym shooting their butts with steroids. Yeah, that was that era,” Peña said.
When asked what she meant by this, Peña explained that she went to ATT pre-USADA and was greeted by gym owner and head coach Dan Lambert. While showing her the ropes, he was open about the fact that at least the women fighters in the gym were injecting themselves with steroids, insisting that they all did so.
“That’s literally what their head coach told me. Like, they were welcoming me into the gym, and he was like, ‘The girls shoot themselves in the ass in the bathroom. They do it to each other.’ And I’m like, ‘No, they don’t.’ And he was like, ‘I swear to God they’re all on steroids.’ I literally didn’t believe him and he was literally shaking at me like, ‘I promise! They’re doing it!,'” Peña said.
To be clear, Julianna Peña did make a point in saying that featherweight and bantamweight champ (as well as her upcoming opponent) Amanda Nunes was not training at the gym at this point, to the best of her knowledge. Either way, it is interesting to consider just how much this might have changed in the time since USADA entered the picture.
What do you make of Julianna Peña’s Bombshell Revelation?
