Cub Swanson was as shocked as the rest of us when he found out his friend and training partner TJ Dillashaw had tested positive for EPO, an injectable only performance-enhancing drug. That being said, he says that he hand his teammates at Treigning Lab are attempting to forgive the former bantamweight champion.

“I kind of found out like everybody else. It was quite a shock, because as far as our team, we have standards and stuff like that about being honest and going through stuff,” Swanson said during a scrum ahead of his UFC Ottawa fight with Shane Burgos (via MMA Junkie). “But he’s still a part of our team, and it’s a decision he made. We forgive him for it.”

While Cub Swanson says he and his compatriots have forgiven TJ Dillashaw, he also acknowledges that there’s been some negative fallout from the ordeal

He also says he’s endured more testing than normal for his UFC Ottawa fight — but he’s fine with that.

“It’s unfortunate,” he said. “Obviously, I didn’t like being put in pictures and the whole team being accused of stuff – that’s not true. He feels terrible about the whole situation, and the talking’s been pretty minimal (between him and I) because I was training for this fight.”

“But we’re working past it. I think it did (shine a negative light on the team). But people can think what they want. I got drug tested more this camp, which is fine. I’m for more drug testing because I don’t do any of that – it doesn’t bother me.”

Catch Cub Swanson back in action on the main card of UFC Ottawa this Saturday on ESPN+.

This article first appeared on BJPENN.COM on 5/3/2019.