UFC’s Marlon Moraes on T.J. Dillashaw’s suspension: ‘Two years is not enough’

Bloodyelbow.com

Streaking UFC bantamweight Marlon Moraes is the latest fighter to chime in on T.J. Dillashaw’s two-year suspension, and the Brazilian doesn’t think the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) was strict enough with the former champ.

Moraes, who was hoping to one day challenge Dillashaw for the bantamweight title, was very disappointed when he found out that TJ had been caught using EPO, an injectable-only performance-enhancing drug, in relation to his flyweight title bout with Henry Cejudo at UFC Fight Night 143.

“We are all disappointed,” Moraes said when speaking to Damon Martin of MMANews. “It was a fairy tale. We don’t know if he’s really that good of a fighter. It’s hard cause every time we get into camp, we want to get into shape, we want to get our conditioning good and this guy he wasn’t worried at all about that. If he was cheating now, he was cheating before.

“He goes on the media and tries to say he’s giving up the belt. I think he was just trying to trick the fans but at the end of the day, what happened? They suspended him and I’m nobody to judge him but now he’s going to have to pay for what he did.”

The earliest Dillashaw can return to the cage is January 19, 2021 but Moraes thinks the 33-year-old should have received a longer suspension.

“Two years is not enough,” Moraes said. “It’s not enough for what he does, it was really serious, that’s my opinion.”

Like others have speculated, Moraes doesn’t think this was the first time Dillashaw had been using performance-enhancing drugs – it was just the first time he got caught.

“He was cheating the system and that wasn’t the first time,” Moraes said. “That wasn’t the first time he was going to do it now with USADA all over everyone. Before, USADA wasn’t even around and I believe he was doing it before.”

Moraes will challenge for the vacant bantamweight title when he takes on reigning flyweight king Henry Cejudo at UFC 238. The pay-per-view takes place later this year, June 8 at United Center in Chicago, Illinois.