Holly Holm on banned substances: ‘I don’t really know how many people are actually using, I don’t know’

Last Friday, eight days before her fight against Valentina Shevchenko, Holly Holm moved to the top of a makeshift leaderboard.

When officials came to collect a urine sample to check for banned substances, it was her 14th drug test of 2016. By the estimation of a straw poll within the UFC, that puts her one test ahead of Conor McGregor for the most this year. Banned substances is UFC’s hot-button topic right now with Jon Jones and Brock Lesnar reportedly testing positive in the last month, and Holm says that shows that the organization is paying attention.

“I don’t really know how many people are actually using, I don’t know,” Holm said Monday when asked if she foresees it becoming a problem on the women’s side. “I guess I’m just so ... I don’t ever. I don’t because I don’t want to ever have to worry about it. I don’t want to ever have to even think about that.”

Holm (10-1, seven knockouts) and Shevchenko (12-2, four knockouts) are set to headline UFC Chicago on Saturday, and Holm spoke with reporters in Los Angeles on Monday about that fight and other topics surrounding UFC. She said 13 of her 14 drug tests have requested blood and urine samples, and that Friday’s was just for urine. When it came to Jones, her teammate, she didn’t want to talk about a situation she doesn’t know much about.

As UFC held a news conference to announce Jones’ disqualification from UFC 200 earlier in July, Holm was in Las Vegas running through the 105-degree heat. She didn’t even know about it until friends started texting her about it. That’s how she generally treats doping issues in the sport: Out of sight, out of mind.

“I want to know that I didn’t need help, I want to feel like I did it on my own,” Holm said of why she’s never used banned substances. “Because I feel like if I needed the help it would be more of a mental thing that I didn’t believe in myself, that I needed to. So for me it’s never been something I thought to do.”

jesse.dougherty@latimes.com

@dougherty_jesse