Daniel Cormier on steroids loophole in Donald Cerrone's desired UFC return: 'I'm against it'
Daniel Cormier is not a fan of Donald Cerrone coming back to the UFC after openly taking steroids.
Cerrone, who retired in July 2022, announced that he plans on returning to the octagon for two more fights. During his time off, Cerrone enjoyed the perks of no longer being drug tested, taking TRT and a bunch of peptides.
Although Cerrone (36-17-2 MMA, 23-14-1 UFC) will have to be clean prior to a potential UFC return, Cormier has an issue with “Cowboy” using performance-enhancing drugs during his time off.
“The one thing about ‘Cowboy,’ is that it’s very refreshing to watch how open he’s been with all of this,” Cormier said on his YouTube channel. “He never lied. He never lied about what he was doing, what he was going to do, and how he was going to apply it to his life, and I’m all for a guy that has personal goals. … But at the end of the day, for years now, he’s been openly using steroids.”
Cormier thinks Cerrone doing that would only encourage other fighters to remove themselves from the drug testing pool and take advantage of their time away.
“I like Donald now, but it doesn’t matter what I feel about him as a person, as a buddy, or whatever it is our relationship is today,” Cormier said. “I don’t quite know what it is, but he’s not been clean. And even if he can come back, take tests, pass those tests, for him to get back, he has to do all of those things and all those enhancers to allow for him to feel like he can compete at that level again. So he would test clean, but isn’t that just a loophole? Isn’t it just a loophole like with the guys, when they get hurt, they get out of the testing pool? They recover from the injury, then they re-enter the testing pool.
“It’s not wrong. It’s not illegal. But is it right? Because you truly have been enhanced to get to where you are and how you feel, and feel good enough to come back and fight in the elite organization of the UFC. To me, it doesn’t feel right. … Remember also, ‘Cowboy’ lost six fights. He had one no contest in seven fights, and the last time he fought Jim Miller and got submitted. Imagine if he comes back and he looks like a world beater. I’m against it. I’m honestly against the idea that you could find a loophole, go in and use that loophole, feel better while using that loophole, come back and fight because you can pass a clean test.”