Chael Sonnen stakes his reputation on Conor McGregor being clean

It will be heartening for Conor McGregor to hear he has a highly regarded UFC name backing him.

The Notorious was forced to deny accusations of 'juicing' when Nate Diaz threw them out there in late February of this year. And while the Irishman tried to laugh off the claims, those words have a tendency to stick around. Diaz's boxing coach made the claims in TV and radio interviews and following McGregor's UFC 196 loss to Diaz, Jose Aldo bandied it around too. But Chael Sonnen likes to think he has his finger on the MMA pulse. The former UFC middleweight title contender is adamant in his belief that McGregor is a clean fighter. On his Beyond the Fight podcast, Sonnen said:

"First off, Conor's not on anything.  "I'm a guy that lived in that world. When a guy takes his t-shirt off, I can tell you exactly what he's taking. I can look at his traps, I can look at his pecs; his definition. I know what he has taken and how he got to look that way. "Conor's clean. He's got great genetics. He's got good DNA going through his system. He's just one of those guys that got lucky."

Sonnen dismisses all the talk of McGregor bulking up and still having defined muscle mass due to the fact that his walk around weight is 164lbs, saying "there's nothing there". He also backed Yoel Romero, who was pinged by the United States Anti Doping Association for taking an illegal supplement but recently downgraded to a six month suspension.