Conor McGregor's bulked-up pictures are definitely "photoshopped," claims Chael Sonnen

Chael Sonnen is doubling down on his defense of Conor McGregor after numerous fighters and fans accused him of PED use in light of the recent photos on the Irish superstar's social media.

Sonnen uploaded a video to his YouTube channel where he discussed the accusations and brought up Derek from 'More Plates More Dates'. Sonnen claimed that McGregor's physique had been altered using the popular image-editing software [Photoshop] before being posted:

"Derek came out and he did a piece on Conor McGregor and he said, 'Conor's doing steroids or the photos that he's putting out are photoshopped.' I gotta stop you right here...did we not know that? I assumed you knew that. Do you guys not know that those photos of big, strong... Do you guys not know that those are photoshopped? Sincere question."

'The American Gangster' then added that he could tell if 'The Notorious' was on PEDs, as well as what type of PEDs, just by looking. He even claimed that for those familiar, the eye test could be just as accurate as USADA:

"You could have me look at him. One-hundred percent of the time, I will be right. And I could break it down further to even tell you specifically what he's using. I could look at his delts...I could look at his upper and lower abs. I would be able to tell you specifically if he was clean and, one step further, what he's using."

'Mystic Mac' has looked considerably bigger in the past few months, and PED use, if there is any, will be nothing out of the ordinary considering the horrific injury [he sustained it at UFC 264] he is recovering from.

Suppose the former two-division UFC champion re-enters the USADA testing pool and passes his tests. In that case, it should remove any doubt about whether he has an unfair advantage in the octagon.

Check out the full video:

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Why did Conor McGregor remove himself from the USADA testing pool?

One of the big questions that have been raised since Conor McGregor's injury was why did he remove himself from the USADA testing pool? Usually, fighters leave the testing pool when they part ways with the UFC or retire from the sport.

'Mystic Mac', on the other hand, is in a different situation. He already knew that his recovery from the leg injury he sustained at UFC 264 would keep him inactive for the better part of a year. McGregor was also set to star in the 'Roadhouse' remake.

It's possible that the former two-division UFC champion didn't want to deal with the hassle of USADA randomly showing up. He wanted to focus on his recovery and film his scenes on set in peace. Now that he has a target date in mind, it seems logical that he re-enters the testing pool and begins negotiating his return.