Chad Mendes Blames Failed USADA Drug Test on Psoriasis Treatment Cream

Chad Mendes has accepted his punishment from USADA without protest because he acknowledges that he broke the rules. However, the UFC featherweight is adamant that he has never knowingly taken performance enhancing drugs. Last week, USADA announced that Mendes was suspended for two years after testing positive for GHRP-6 (Growth Hormone-Releasing Hexapeptide) in an out-of-competition urine test conducted on May 17. He is not eligible to return to UFC competition until June 10, 2018, two years from the date he was handed a provisional suspension. Mendes does not deny taking the substance, but he claims that it was from a skin cream used to treat plaque psoriasis, a condition the fighter says he’s dealt with his entire life. The former featherweight title challenger addressed the situation for the first time in an interview on CBS Sacramento’s “The Drive.” “I have it all over my shins, my scalp is covered in it, I have it all over my ears, I get a big patch of it on my side. I’ve had it since I can even remember. I remember as a little kid I’d try to get on the wrestling mat and people would be like, ‘You have a giant ringworm, I’m not wrestling you.’ It’s something I’ve been dealing with my entire life. Even people I’m trying to grapple with on the mat sometimes get freaked out because it gets super red and inflamed and it looks just God awful,” he said. They think it’s contagious and they don’t want to touch me. My scalp, I can’t wear a black shirt; it looks like it’s snowing all over my shoulders. It’s pretty disgusting and embarrassing. My fiancee hates it. It’s itchy all the damn time.” Because of those issues, Mendes says he has been open to a number of solutions …

continue reading in source www.sherdog.com