UFC bantamweight contender Julianna Pena claims an unnamed coach at American Top Team (ATT) told her that most of the female fighters at the famed MMA gym, which is run by Dan Lambert in Coconut Creek, Fla., were “shooting their butts with steroids” when she spent a week on location back in 2013.
“They were welcoming me into the gym, and he was like, ‘The girls shoot themselves in the ass in the bathroom – they do it to each other,’ and I’m like, ‘No, they don’t,’” Pena told The MMA Hour. “And he was like, ‘I swear to god, they’re all on steroids.’ I literally didn’t believe him, and he was literally like shaking me in the head, [saying], ‘I promise, they’re doing it.’ That was my experience training at American Top Team. But that was pre-[U.S. Anti-Doping Agency].”
Lambert responded “LOL” when reached for comment by MMA Fighting.
Pena (10-4), who captured the glass trophy on Season 18 of The Ultimate Fighter (TUF), will once again cross paths with the ATT crew when she battles UFC two-division champion Amanda Nunes as part of the UFC 269 pay-per-view (PPV) event next month in Las Vegas.
It should be noted that “Lioness” joined ATT after her Cat Zingano loss in late 2014.