If more fighters took the same kind of public stance on performance-enhancing drugs as UFC middleweight Tim Kennedy, the sport of mixed martial arts might be better off.
Not everybody can be Kennedy, of course. He is nearly one of a kind: a cerebral and talented fighter who is willing to speak his mind. He is a special forces operator who still, 12 years after beginning his professional mixed martial arts career, still does sporadic “work” for the United States government. What kind of work, Kennedy won’t say. But it is safe to assume that, given his background as an elite sniper, Kennedy isn’t building roads in foreign countries.
But more importantly to our interests, Kennedy is unafraid and unapologetic when it comes to the subject of PEDs. He believes mixed martial arts is a dirty and broken sport, and he is so disillusioned with the way things are going that he’s not sure he’ll ever fight again. He is not retired, he told Ariel Helwani on Monday’s edition of The MMA Hour (h/t MMA Fighting). But he also is not in a hurry to get back in the Octagon.
I have a conflict. My love for the sport isn’t going away. I’m just disappointed in the sport. I don’t know how to explain these mixed emotions where I’m like: every dude in my weight class is testing positive, everybody is cheating, judging still sucks, reffing still sucks.
Kennedy isn’t scared of pointing a little blame at Lorenzo Fertitta and Dana White, either. He told Helwani that he sees what he believes is “lip service” from White and Fertitta every time somebody fails a drug test. Changes are promised, Kennedy said, “and then nothing changes.”
Kennedy has been out of action since a controversial loss to Yoel Romero at UFC 178. Kennedy nearly beat Romero in the second round and, in fact, believed he’d won the fight when Romero took too long getting off his stool for the start of the third round. But Romero was given extra time and Kennedy, flustered by the proceedings, started the third round flat. Romero took advantage and finished Kennedy with strikes.
Kennedy also told Helwani that he needs his brain. “This sport does not compensate enough for me to be damaged for the rest of my life, not to be able to have a real career the last 40 years of my life,” he said.
Many kudos should be given to Kennedy, for both speaking his mind and for standing up for something he feels passionately about. He has long been a vocal opponent of performance-enhancing drugs; now, he’s taking the next step by remaining on the sidelines due to his disappointment with the way things are heading.
The problem is that Kennedy, for the most part, is a man alone on an island. The majority of fighters don’t speak up about the negative effects of PEDs in mixed martial arts. The ones that do are rarely willing to rock the boat outside of a stray comment here and there. And almost none of them are willing to say they’ve had enough and are no longer interested in participating in a dirty sport.
And until there are more fighters like Kennedy who are willing to speak their mind and take action with their own careers, there will be no meaningful changes. Georges St-Pierre, the legendary former welterweight champion, has been a vocal proponent of the need for a drastic overhaul to the drug culture in mixed martial arts, per ESPN.com.
But like Kennedy, St-Pierre can’t go at it alone. A real effort to clean up the sport would require vocal criticism from many of the UFC’s top stars. Until the promotion feels backed into a corner, it won’t change a thing. The recent decision to cancel plans for a comprehensive random drug testing program that would test the entire roster multiple times per year is a perfect example.
That program represented a real glimmer of hope on the horizon and a chance to turn things around. Now, it has been tossed on the scrap heap. Some athletic commissions will continue to randomly test main event fighters. But they’ll never be able to afford a program that tests every fighter on the UFC roster, and PEDs will continue to run rampant.
It seems Kennedy senses what kind of future could be in store for mixed martial arts if drastic measures aren’t taken to curtail the use of PEDs. It is a bleak vision. The public at large will never accept a sport considered to be dirty. Not on a long-term basis, anyway. I’ve said it before, and I will say it again: mixed martial arts already has plenty going against it. The violence of the thing is enough to deter a lot of people from watching. If the general public believes all fighters are juiced up cheaters, well, things get even worse.
Again, kudos to Kennedy for speaking up. But in order for real change to occur, he cannot be alone. Others must join him, not necessarily in abstaining from competing but in continually pressing for a total cleansing of the sport.
Until Kennedy’s one-man band becomes a crowd, things will remain just as they are.
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