After hearing Chael Sonnen’s argument on his suspension for steroid use, the California State Athletic Commission (CSAC) reduced the sanction to six months. But instead of thanking the commission for imposing a much lighter offense, Sonnen is now telling everybody that he was not satisfied how CSAC handled his case. During an interview with Mike Straka of Inside MMA, the UFC middleweight fighter contends that he disclosed to the commission his use of testosterone. He even emphasized that they told CSAC many times about his condition and he also alleged that they got positive response from people inside of the organization.

Sonnen told Straka that he was not found guilty of using a banned substance and he was never accused or suspected of using an illegal substance. “That was an online rumor that was started and perpetuated and I never did anything to step in and stop it. But I was accused of taking testosterone without the proper disclosure and still to this moment I don’t know what the proper disclosure they were looking for was,” said Sonnen.

During the hearing, Sonnen’s doctor told the panel that the former is under testosterone replacement therapy because of a medical condition called hypogonadism. The test result revealed a very high T/E ratio but according to some experts the test is not enough to really determine if an athlete really cheated. However, the main issue that Sonnen is still trying to point out is the flaw in the processes within the commission.

Sonnen told Straka that the commission knows and there’s no hiding of his testosterone use. In fact, he said that he was given a go signal by the people inside CSAC when he fought in California a year ago. “There’s no other process to disclose. In the state of California, they don’t have a form that needs [to be] filled out. They don’t have anybody higher up to go to. They just simply use the word disclose and that’s what we did; and that’s not even the crux of my argument,” said Sonnen. He also said that he disclosed his use of steroids a year ago but the commission said that there was no record of the alleged application for testosterone exemption.

Jamie Penick of MMATorch reacted on the statements of Chael Sonnen saying the fighter may just be confused. It is clear that the middleweight fighter did not follow the process. Another issue that was noted by Penick was Sonnen emailed and called a UFC doctor not an employee of the CSAC. The commission denies that they have a prior approval of the testosterone therapy.

The assertion of Sonnen that testosterone is not a steroid is simply wrong. It is a known fact that testosterone is a form of steroid. This drug is a legal steroid when prescribed for medical reasons. There are some people that think steroids are all illegal. “They’re not. Many of the prevalent steroids are legal if prescribed by a physician for a medical condition, which is Sonnen’s case here, but that doesn’t make testosterone injections any less of a steroid treatment,” said Penick.

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