UFC President Dana White – and everyone else in the MMA community – is trying to uncover the reason for what seems like an epidemic of fighter injuries in training that are leading to cancellations of fights both pedestrian and significant. White’s early theory is that too many high-level fighters with too much firepower are training too hard together. Bubba Jenkins, the 2011 NCAA Division I national champion wrestler turned MMA fighter, however, believes the origin of the problem could be rooted in performance enhancing drugs and chemical dependency issues.
“I think the fact that a lot of people in the sport aren’t genuine to the sport. Some people are taking steroids, some people are doing different things and I feel like that hampers and hurts their career for longevity,” Jenkins told me at ‘Grapple in the Big Apple’ exhibition wrestling event last week in New York City.
“Some people take steroids to get better or not to get better, but to get healed, and I’ve just never been a big fan of that. So when I start seeing random injuries from just a lot of different people, I start to get that eyebrow like ‘Hmmm. See, you should probably just being doing it the right way.'”
“Karma’s alive,” Jenkins continued. “Karma will come back to bite you. I just think it’s a little bit of training hard and really getting after it and a little bit of the fact that people aren’t doing the right things off the mat.”
In the video below where Jenkins floats this theory, he and I also discuss his next fight, the personal challenges of transitioning to MMA he’s had to endure and even his life as a rapper. Watch the entire video for all of the topics.