Cub Swanson Says USADA Played Role In Re-Signing With UFC

In an interview with MMA Fighting, Cub Swanson admitted that USADA played a big role in his decision to re-sign with the UFC. Here are highlights:

On why he re-signed with UFC: “I feel like when it was all said and done, we were able to see eye-to-eye [financially]. It was more than they were initially offering me. I did get some huge offers, but the companies weren’t as stable and things like that, and it was really making me really think hard. But one of the biggest things is, I’m all for USADA. I spent a long time fighting for the company without the major drug testing, and I feel like I wasn’t a big fan of that, so I just was thinking in my head, ‘Do I really want to be fighting guys who I know are just cheating?’ And I’m not one to do that, so I was happy to sign back with the UFC and be in a clean sport.”

On if USADA works: “I don’t think they’re catching everybody. I think there are some people who are getting around it, but for the most part, they are catching people. A lot of the people who are getting caught, everyone’s making excuses. Maybe a handful of those people are legitimate, but I doubt it. I have a hard time believing a lot of those [tainted supplement excuses]. I mean, you’re supposed to be on top of all that stuff. With our coach Sam (Calavitta), everything that we take, he’s putting a stamp of approval on it, and if we were to test positive, he’s basically putting our whole team — like, ‘Hey, we all take this stuff. We give it to USADA, this is what we’re taking. Feel free.’ And I feel very confident every time they test me. I’m like, yeah, come on, test me, I’m good, I’m clean.”

On MMA’s PED problem: “I mean, I think it was bad. I was pretty ignorant to it all through my WEC days because I came from a smaller gym, I believe. I think when you get to, like, the super-gyms, there are more people who are helping each other out and so there’s more of a chance that you get to learn about that kind of stuff. I didn’t learn about any of that kind of stuff until later in my career, and really finding out like, wow, okay. And there’s a difference between somebody taking the smallest amount to recover, and then a combination of like 10 things to make them just an animal, enough to change the structure of your face. You know what I mean? The size of your head. So there’s a difference between taking a little bit to recover and then making you just like a robot, and I feel bad for them in the long run, because I think they’ll have a lot of problems down the road. I think that when they talk about concussions and things like that, I feel like a lot of people don’t take into consideration that it’s the concussions mixed with the steroids, and what that might do to the brain.”