After Dillashaw discovered that his hematocrit level was down —the ratio of the volume of red blood cells to the total volume of blood— he decided to take a substance called Procrit, which he knew was banned.
“I decided to take something I wasn’t allowed to take. It was called Procrit, it’s an anemia medication that would not only help me make the weight, but would also allow me to be myself. I’m not mad I did it because I don’t think I could’ve taken the fight. I’m obviously going to own up that I cheated and I got caught.”
Dillashaw maintained that it was hard to deal with the dip in public opinion he received on the back of the failed test.
“It’s a rough one, man,” Dillashaw said. “It’s hard not to hate yourself a little a bit, you know…it’s a tough one.”
“It’s been the darkest time of my life and it’s been the best,” Dillashaw told Sonnen. “Like I said, I have a 17-month old son and that’s been a great distraction for me. Thank goodness for him, you know, because it’s been tough for me, man. It’s been tough for me to be downstairs with Juan and show my face. It’s been a tough go.”
“Yeah of course [it was difficult to show up to the Bellator 222 press conference]. I mean, I’ve hidden out. I haven’t done any interviews, I haven’t done…I’ve just kind of hidden away from it. There have been things I’ve wanted to say, but I didn’t because it didn’t want to create excuses.”
“First and foremost, I cheated. I don’t want to runaround that — that’s why I announced it even when USADA was coming out. I didn’t want to create any excuses, I was like, ‘Look, this was it.’ I did it, I want to be up front with you guys. I didn’t want to create any excuses about why I did it. I knew eventually I would talk about it and this is now, this is the first time I have,” Dillashaw said.
T.J. Dillashaw opens up on failed drug test: ‘It’s hard not to hate yourself a little a bit’