Chad Mendes has been on the sidelines but now his sights set on his return to the Octagon under the UFC banner.
For those who may have forgotten, the reason for Mendes’ inactivity is due to a failed drug test.
Back in July of 2016, USADA announced that Mendes had received a two-year sanction for an anti-doping policy violation after testing positive for a prohibited substance.
He tested positive for GHRP-6 (Growth Hormone-Releasing Hexapeptide) following an out-of-competition urine test conducted on May 17, 2016.
Mendes opened up the failed drug test and time away from the sport in a recent interview with MMA Fighting.
“It sucked,” Mendes said. “I don’t ever want to be remembered as someone who was trying to cheat or use steroids or anything. I was getting a little burned out with just a lot of the things in the fight game. Just the politics, doing all the media, the weight-cutting, getting punched in the face. You know? There was a lot of it, that, it was just kind of, I don’t know. I felt myself getting burned out. So I feel this time off has been really, really good for me.”
“It was my mistake,” Mendes said. “I got a product that was used for my my psoriasis, I didn’t pay attention there was a peptide in it that was on USADA’s banned list.
I’ve been drug tested, randomly drug tested a bunch of times before my fights and I’ve never had any issues and I’ve been drug tested randomly a bunch of time since then and never had any issues.
It was never a question of me trying to cheat or anything, It was just a mistake, I messed up, obviously I’m being tested by USADA and boom. I used it, I didn’t pay attention, and that’s basically the bottom line.”
Mendes (17-4) is currently on a two-fight losing streak and is 3-3 in his last six bouts. He last competed against Frankie Edgar at the TUF 22 Finale. Mendes will be able to return to active competition on May 17th, 2018.
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