Sullivan: I did NOTHING wrong

Last year UFC welterweight George Sullivan was suspended for one year by the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA). While under suspension he remained subject to testing, and a test was flagged, leading to a further, provisional suspension. On its face it appears to be a case of an incorrigible doper, but it’s not.

Last year Sullivan voluntarily disclosed that he was taking a deer antler velvet supplement; it apparently contained the banned substance Insulin-like Growth Factor-1 (IGF-1). The fighter says the drug does not appear on the bottle; USADA says the manufacturer lists IGF-1 in the product on its website. And Sullivan never tested positive for IGF-1. He got a one-year suspension for simply declaring that he was taking something that says on the website contains something prohibited.

While suspended Sullivan tested positive for Clomiphene, the same drug that Jon Jones and Brock Lensar tested positive for. It can be used to restart normal hormone production in the body following a cycle of steroids. Lesnar never did figure out where it came from. Jones got it from taking a contaminated bootleg erectile dysfunction drug. And during a recent interview with MyMMANews, Sullivan says he was taking it under the care of a physician for fertility, as he and his wife want to have children.

Sullivan says he started taking it two days before a tester showed up at his gym at 5:00 a.m. and he forgot to mention it on the disclosure form. USADA is currently investigating, but a planned fight with Randy Brown at UFC 208 was scrapped.

There’s a lot of information that goes towards showing them that it was just an honest mistake, said Sullivan, as transcribed by Marc Raimondi for MMA Fighting. It’s been 65 days and I still can’t the medication approved. It’s very vigorous how they test everything. They need to break everything down and talk to your doctor. It’s crazy.

Sullivan plans to fight back and sue the supplement manufacturer.

Basically I was screwed over and I never took anything, willingly knowing I was taking an illegal supplement, he said. That’s what hurt me the most. Everybody was like, ‘Oh, he took it.’ I didn’t even know it was in the bottle. I didn’t do nothing wrong. And it’s gonna come out in the court cases when I go after this company.

Sullivan says it hurt too that his privacy was breached; he had no plans to go public about the fertility drug he was taking. And the reaction of some fans hurt.

They’re fake fans, said Sullivan. They don’t read the articles. A lot of guys are like, ‘You let your fans down.’ How about the fact that I’m trying to have a kid? I didn’t let you guys down. I didn’t think about that. All you guys had your kids. We’re trying to do what’s best for our family.

It is not known when USADA will conclude its current investigation.