Matt Brown advocates five-year PED ban: If you're going to take steroids you should be forgotten about

With the recent string of high profile positive drug tests that have come to light over the past couple of months, disappointed fighters such as UFC welterweight Matt Brown are calling for stricter bans for combatants who test positive for performance enhancing drugs.

Brown, who is scheduled to meet Johny Hendricks on Saturday night at UFC 185, believes extending the ban to five years for first-time offenders would immediately deter a significant portion of cheaters.

"My thoughts on the steroid controversy, I'm glad to hear that the UFC is doing things about the steroids," Brown told The Shoot (via MMAFighting.com). "The No. 1 thing to do is harsher penalties. First offense, five-year ban. Yea, that's going to sway a lot of guys.'

At a special press conference last month, the UFC announced a new plan to implement comprehensive out-of-competition random performance enhancing drug (PED) testing. The promotion revealed that they would also advocate for longer suspensions and harsher punishments for fighters who test positive for any banned substance. While standard suspensions are currently nine months, Fertitta mentioned that they would look into potentially extending such bans to either two or four years.

Brown, however, wants the suspension length to be five years.

"It's going to turn a lot of guys away from doing it," said Brown. "You'd have to really, really turn yourself around to be able to come back from that. You'd be forgot about and that's the way it should be. You should be forgotten about.

"If you're going to take steroids you should be forgotten about. If it's against the rules, it's against the rules. The fact is it's cheating. Harsher penalties is the way to go."

Transcription taken from MMAFighting.com.