When Stephan Bonnar stepped up to fight Anderson Silva at UFC 153 many applauded his guts to step up to fight one of the toughest fighters in the world on short notice, especially when Bonnar had been out of action for a year and his future was very much in question. It has been a few months since he tested positive for steroids now and he has finally broken his silence on the matter.
One thing has to be said for Stephan Bonnar, is that he has always come across as a genuine person. This was his second positive drug test in his career and he freely owns up to taking a banned substance, but he never meant to cheat, he claims. He knowingly took said substance but had never intended to compete, he told Ariel Helwani on the MMA hour. In fact, the purpose behind the Drostanolone in his system was to help fix his ailing knees. He actually thought that his UFC career was over and was simply looking to help regain some strength in his injured knees. Dana White had actually implied that Bonnar should retire, so Bonnar was really in a bit of a strange place, professionally.
When he got the call to fight Anderson Silva he had already ceased taking the drug and his doctors had told him that it would have been out of his system in time. The rest is, well, history.
What do you guys think about this? Do you believe Bonnar that he didn’t believe that he’d be fighting again and was just trying to heal old injuries?