Former UFC star ‘Filthy’ Tom Lawlor rips Usada ‘scumbags’ over suspension ahead of MMA return
- Veteran light heavyweight returns to the cage with the PFL in April, more than four years on from controversial doping ban
- ‘It sucks when you’re the poster child for being screwed in this situation,’ says Lawlor – ‘there’s no pay-off for me in the long run’
Almost four years on from his doping suspension, “Filthy” Tom Lawlor is finally set to return to a major MMA organisation when he debuts in the Professional Fighters League in April.
After making his UFC debut in 2008, the 37-year-old American (10-6, one no contest) – a fan favourite for his wacky walkouts and weigh-in costumes – had been making a name for himself in the promotion’s light heavyweight division, going on a two-fight win streak before a unanimous decision defeat by the ranked Corey Anderson (14-5) in March 2016.
His world came crashing down in October that year, after testing positive for a “low” level of prohibited substance ostarine in an out-of-competition test. Lawlor denied intentionally taking the performance-enhancing substance and put it down to a tainted supplement, but was handed a two-year suspension by Usada, the UFC’s anti-doping partner, and was eventually cut from the UFC roster just before his ban was about to end.
Usada would eventually relax its rules for such cases, reducing suspensions to three or six months in similar cases since, and even admitting Lawlor would have got a lesser sanction had his case happened in 2019, and not 2016.
“In one sense I’m happy every time I see one of these guys like Sean O’Malley or Diego Sanchez even get hit with one of these, and it’s a three or six month suspension,” Lawlor told SCMP MMA. “That’s cool, but at the same time it sucks when you’re the guy who’s the poster child for being screwed in this situation.