Author: Ben Fowlkes

Nate Marquardt Is ‘Done,’ Dana White Says, but TRT Use a Trickier Subject

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Nate MarquardtLAS VEGAS — UFC president Dana White isn’t against testosterone replacement therapy on principal, he told reporters after Thursday afternoon’s UFC 132 pre-fight press conference, but all testosterone use isn’t equal in the boss’s eyes

“There’s a difference between testosterone replacement therapy and when you get it to a level where it’s performance-enhancing,” White said.

As for the differences between the situation with Chael Sonnen, who White said should have been granted a license to fight “a month ago” after serving his suspension for testosterone use, and Nate Marquardt, who he fired from the UFC after the fighter was pulled from last weekend’s UFC Live card for his use of the same hormone, a lot seems to hinge on past behavior and full disclosure, at least in White’s eyes.

“The difference with Chael and Marquardt, is we can talk about everything in the Chael incident. We can’t with Marquardt. I’ve seen some of the stuff people are saying. You think I’m this crazy, emotional psycho. Give me a break. This isn’t the first time. Everybody’s like, ‘Oh, give him a second chance.’ This would be like the fourth time.”


White pointed to medical privacy laws in the state of Pennsylvania as the reasons why he couldn’t talk more about the Marquardt situation, but seized on Marquardt’s past positive drug test and his problems gaining a therapeutic-use exemption in New Jersey as reasons for Marquardt’s dismissal.

“He tested positive before, then apparently he was on suspension with New Jersey, because his levels were high, then he comes into [Pittsburgh] and he doesn’t pass his medicals. Now you tell me: is that the fourth chance? Or is that a second chance? Sounds like a fourth chance to me.”

As for why Marquardt was even offered a fight in Pittsburgh when he was still dealing with lingering issues from his TUE application in New Jersey, White said he wasn’t aware that Marquardt was not totally cleared following UFC 128, though other UFC officials were.

“I literally didn’t know that until Thursday, but people in my organization did — the people who handled the medicals and things like that,” White said. “I was pretty upset about it when I found out about it on Thursday. …If I would’ve known earlier, I would have made sure it was handled differently.”

The way White sees it, testosterone replacement therapy is not, in and of itself, always a problem for professional fighters. There are some who may legitimately need it for one reason or another, he said, and those fighters “probably need to really take it.”

That said, there’s getting back to normal hormone levels and then there’s getting to higher than normal levels, and the distinction is what matters.

“I think it depends. Listen, it’s obvious that there’s guys who use steroids early in their career, and when you get up to around that age, 30 years old, your body isn’t producing it the way that it’s supposed to. Listen, I’m the furthest f–king thing from a doctor you’ll ever see, but I guess if they go in there and start replacing it and getting it to normal levels where normal, average guys are at these levels. If it’s five or whatever over that, you’re taking too much or you’re going to see the wrong doctor. I think this whole testosterone therapy thing works for guys who absolutely need it, but I think it’s a messy loophole.”

In the case of Marquardt, White said he thinks it’s “fair” that New Jersey won’t overturn his win against Dan Miller, but said the fighter has absolutely no future in the UFC, even though there’s no personal animosity between them.

“Nate’s done,” said White. “I’m done with Nate. Listen, Nate’s a really nice guy. He’s a really sweet, nice, humble guy, but the facts are the facts and it is what it is. It’s easier to go after a guy like Josh Barnett. He’s just callous and rude and he’s a d–k. So when he does it it’s easier to just go, you know what, f–k Josh Barnett. The difference is, Nate’s such a sweet, nice guy, but the same results.”

A few months ago, a fighter like Marquardt might have been able to reconcile his career in Strikeforce after being banished from the UFC. But now that the UFC’s parent company, Zuffa, owns that organization as well, could Marquardt still have a shot with MMA’s second-biggest promotion?

“I don’t know,” White said. “Don’t even ask me about Strikeforce.”

 

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Nate MarquardtLAS VEGAS — UFC president Dana White isn’t against testosterone replacement therapy on principal, he told reporters after Thursday afternoon’s UFC 132 pre-fight press conference, but all testosterone use isn’t equal in the boss’s eyes

“There’s a difference between testosterone replacement therapy and when you get it to a level where it’s performance-enhancing,” White said.

As for the differences between the situation with Chael Sonnen, who White said should have been granted a license to fight “a month ago” after serving his suspension for testosterone use, and Nate Marquardt, who he fired from the UFC after the fighter was pulled from last weekend’s UFC Live card for his use of the same hormone, a lot seems to hinge on past behavior and full disclosure, at least in White’s eyes.

“The difference with Chael and Marquardt, is we can talk about everything in the Chael incident. We can’t with Marquardt. I’ve seen some of the stuff people are saying. You think I’m this crazy, emotional psycho. Give me a break. This isn’t the first time. Everybody’s like, ‘Oh, give him a second chance.’ This would be like the fourth time.”


White pointed to medical privacy laws in the state of Pennsylvania as the reasons why he couldn’t talk more about the Marquardt situation, but seized on Marquardt’s past positive drug test and his problems gaining a therapeutic-use exemption in New Jersey as reasons for Marquardt’s dismissal.

“He tested positive before, then apparently he was on suspension with New Jersey, because his levels were high, then he comes into [Pittsburgh] and he doesn’t pass his medicals. Now you tell me: is that the fourth chance? Or is that a second chance? Sounds like a fourth chance to me.”

As for why Marquardt was even offered a fight in Pittsburgh when he was still dealing with lingering issues from his TUE application in New Jersey, White said he wasn’t aware that Marquardt was not totally cleared following UFC 128, though other UFC officials were.

“I literally didn’t know that until Thursday, but people in my organization did — the people who handled the medicals and things like that,” White said. “I was pretty upset about it when I found out about it on Thursday. …If I would’ve known earlier, I would have made sure it was handled differently.”

The way White sees it, testosterone replacement therapy is not, in and of itself, always a problem for professional fighters. There are some who may legitimately need it for one reason or another, he said, and those fighters “probably need to really take it.”

That said, there’s getting back to normal hormone levels and then there’s getting to higher than normal levels, and the distinction is what matters.

“I think it depends. Listen, it’s obvious that there’s guys who use steroids early in their career, and when you get up to around that age, 30 years old, your body isn’t producing it the way that it’s supposed to. Listen, I’m the furthest f–king thing from a doctor you’ll ever see, but I guess if they go in there and start replacing it and getting it to normal levels where normal, average guys are at these levels. If it’s five or whatever over that, you’re taking too much or you’re going to see the wrong doctor. I think this whole testosterone therapy thing works for guys who absolutely need it, but I think it’s a messy loophole.”

In the case of Marquardt, White said he thinks it’s “fair” that New Jersey won’t overturn his win against Dan Miller, but said the fighter has absolutely no future in the UFC, even though there’s no personal animosity between them.

“Nate’s done,” said White. “I’m done with Nate. Listen, Nate’s a really nice guy. He’s a really sweet, nice, humble guy, but the facts are the facts and it is what it is. It’s easier to go after a guy like Josh Barnett. He’s just callous and rude and he’s a d–k. So when he does it it’s easier to just go, you know what, f–k Josh Barnett. The difference is, Nate’s such a sweet, nice guy, but the same results.”

A few months ago, a fighter like Marquardt might have been able to reconcile his career in Strikeforce after being banished from the UFC. But now that the UFC’s parent company, Zuffa, owns that organization as well, could Marquardt still have a shot with MMA’s second-biggest promotion?

“I don’t know,” White said. “Don’t even ask me about Strikeforce.”

 

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Chris Leben’s Biggest Problem in Last Loss? Too Much Candy

Filed under: UFCLAS VEGAS — As Chris Leben pointed out this week, his fight with Wanderlei Silva at UFC 132 will be his 18th UFC bout. But that doesn’t mean he’s not still a work in progress, learning as he goes.

Take, for instance, his loss to Brian…

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LAS VEGAS — As Chris Leben pointed out this week, his fight with Wanderlei Silva at UFC 132 will be his 18th UFC bout. But that doesn’t mean he’s not still a work in progress, learning as he goes.

Take, for instance, his loss to Brian Stann at UFC 125. Stann knocked him out in the first round, but Leben didn’t exactly help his own cause before the fight, he told reporters on Wednesday.

“I ate a bunch of candy, dude. I’m not lying,” said Leben, who, of course, also stressed that he didn’t want to take anything away from Stann’s victory.

“I didn’t eat sugar for like two months. Then after I made weight I went and bought gummy bears and chocolate and ice cream, and I ate that. My body hadn’t had sugar, so I was backstage puking, sh—ing and puking when I was on-deck for that fight. That’s not a lie; that’s the truth. And Brian Stann fought an amazing fight, but hindsight’s 20/20. No gummy bears for me this fight.”

That’s right: candy.

Leben, a nine-year veteran of MMA with over 30 pro fights, was undone by the highly questionable decision to feast on sweets right before fighting another human being in a cage for money.

But hey, at least now he knows not to do it again. Not that that’s a lesson many fighters have to learn the hard way, but still.

At 30 years old, there aren’t many secrets about Leben’s game. He comes forward, throws one looping bomb after another, and tries to bait every opponent into a street fight. Against Silva, the baiting process ought to be the easiest part, or at least that’s what most people are expecting.

For Leben, the fight with Silva is a chance to take on a personal hero, as well as a bit of an MMA role model.

“When I first starting fighting, I was watching Wanderlei and, in some ways, attempting to emulate some of the stuff that he did,” Leben said. “The guy’s been in dozens of legendary wars. You can’t go into 7-11 without seeing him next to the little Xyience things. He’s everywhere.”

At the same time, even with a win over the aging Silva, Leben isn’t likely to be a title contender any time soon — though UFC president Dana White did say that the winner would likely be “in the mix,” for what that’s worth.

But Leben seems to realize his own limitations, and has instead set his sights on being one of the most exciting fighters rather than winning at all costs. The belt, he said, is just a “superficial object.” Etching your name in people’s minds as a fan favorite isn’t something you can touch, but it does seem like a more attainable goal for Leben.

“There’s somebody that’s not in the UFC that’s better than me that can beat me right now,” Leben said. “I guarantee that. There’s a lot of people in this world. Where I’m at in my career, I just want to have epic fights. I want to have fights that go down in the history books. I want to put on a show. I want people to think, hey, Chris Leben’s on this card, I’m buying that pay-per-view.”

If that’s his goal, he seems to be most of the way there already. Leben has rarely been in a boring UFC fight, and the few he has had were almost universally his opponent’s doing rather than his. If things with Silva even live up to half of the hype, he should have another slugfest to add to his highlight clip very soon.

And later, when it’s over? Now that’s the type to break out the candy and celebrate. At least now he knows.

 

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After 15 Years, Wanderlei Silva Still Trying to Give Fans What They Want

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LAS VEGAS — Wanderlei Silva made his way into the MGM Grand ballroom and went straight to working the ropeline like an experienced politician during Wednesday afternoon’s UFC 132 open workouts. The Brazilian slugger has been around long enough by now that he knows what the fans want, and it isn’t to see him hit some pads.

Workouts? Sure, it’s a nice photo op. But really they want to shake his hand, maybe get an autograph, but mostly they want to see him. They want to feel like they have something of him that they can take home, because no one knows how much longer this ride is going to last.

If you ask Silva, he’ll tell you he wants another five years in the sport, maybe ten more fights total.

“That’s my plan,” he said. “I don’t know what’s God’s plan.”

Silva will turn 35 years old the day after his fight with Chris Leben at UFC 132. Almost 15 of those years have been spent in the fight game, from bare-knuckle Vale Tudo bouts in Brazilian nightclubs to the Saitama Super Arena in Tokyo to his current home in the UFC. It’s been a long ride for Silva, and with the way he fights, it’s also been a rough one.

Despite one recent surgery to repair his injured knee and another to remove some of the copious scar tissue from his face, Silva said he’s still feeling healthy a decade and a half into his fight career. He has “regular pains,” but nothing serious.

Still, he’s suffered progressively frightening knockout losses in three of his last seven bouts, and he’s won only two fights in that same span. He might not have come to the end of the road, but he ought to be able to see it from where he’s standing now.

But Wanderlei is Wanderlei, and there are expectations that come with that. Fans expect him to brawl. They expect him to fight like there is no greater shame in life than taking a backward step. They expect him to give them a knockout — his own or someone else’s, it doesn’t particularly matter.

This comes with a price, but it’s one he’s used to paying by now. It would be smart to fight a little safer, for the sake of his health and longevity, if nothing else, but as he put it: “We are not machines. We have a lot of things inside.”

In other words, there’s what would be smart for you to do, and then there’s what it is in you to do.

And it’s not as if his coaches haven’t tried to get him to take it easy in there, Silva said. It’s just that, well, he’s been doing it this way for a little while now. Even he doesn’t seem to know whether he’s capable of changing.

“After the fight, I don’t know what’s happened to me,” he said. “I feel crazy. I want to kill the guy. A lot of times my coach says, ‘Calm, calm!’ That’s his instruction for me: ‘Calm! Calm! Calm!'”

At the same time, Wanderlei didn’t get to be Wanderlei by staying calm. Just like the UFC didn’t match him up with fellow slugger Chris Leben because it wanted to see him fight smart and safe.

The fans want what they want, and Silva has always known just how to give it to him. But in giving it to him, he may also be giving up those last few years he hopes to squeeze into an already overflowing body of work.

The question is, can he keep being the same old Wanderlei, and still stick around as the years and the beatings pile up?

“That’s a good question,” Silva said with a wry smile. “I’ll try.”

 

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LAS VEGAS — Wanderlei Silva made his way into the MGM Grand ballroom and went straight to working the ropeline like an experienced politician during Wednesday afternoon’s UFC 132 open workouts. The Brazilian slugger has been around long enough by now that he knows what the fans want, and it isn’t to see him hit some pads.

Workouts? Sure, it’s a nice photo op. But really they want to shake his hand, maybe get an autograph, but mostly they want to see him. They want to feel like they have something of him that they can take home, because no one knows how much longer this ride is going to last.

If you ask Silva, he’ll tell you he wants another five years in the sport, maybe ten more fights total.

“That’s my plan,” he said. “I don’t know what’s God’s plan.”

Silva will turn 35 years old the day after his fight with Chris Leben at UFC 132. Almost 15 of those years have been spent in the fight game, from bare-knuckle Vale Tudo bouts in Brazilian nightclubs to the Saitama Super Arena in Tokyo to his current home in the UFC. It’s been a long ride for Silva, and with the way he fights, it’s also been a rough one.

Despite one recent surgery to repair his injured knee and another to remove some of the copious scar tissue from his face, Silva said he’s still feeling healthy a decade and a half into his fight career. He has “regular pains,” but nothing serious.

Still, he’s suffered progressively frightening knockout losses in three of his last seven bouts, and he’s won only two fights in that same span. He might not have come to the end of the road, but he ought to be able to see it from where he’s standing now.

But Wanderlei is Wanderlei, and there are expectations that come with that. Fans expect him to brawl. They expect him to fight like there is no greater shame in life than taking a backward step. They expect him to give them a knockout — his own or someone else’s, it doesn’t particularly matter.

This comes with a price, but it’s one he’s used to paying by now. It would be smart to fight a little safer, for the sake of his health and longevity, if nothing else, but as he put it: “We are not machines. We have a lot of things inside.”

In other words, there’s what would be smart for you to do, and then there’s what it is in you to do.

And it’s not as if his coaches haven’t tried to get him to take it easy in there, Silva said. It’s just that, well, he’s been doing it this way for a little while now. Even he doesn’t seem to know whether he’s capable of changing.

“After the fight, I don’t know what’s happened to me,” he said. “I feel crazy. I want to kill the guy. A lot of times my coach says, ‘Calm, calm!’ That’s his instruction for me: ‘Calm! Calm! Calm!'”

At the same time, Wanderlei didn’t get to be Wanderlei by staying calm. Just like the UFC didn’t match him up with fellow slugger Chris Leben because it wanted to see him fight smart and safe.

The fans want what they want, and Silva has always known just how to give it to him. But in giving it to him, he may also be giving up those last few years he hopes to squeeze into an already overflowing body of work.

The question is, can he keep being the same old Wanderlei, and still stick around as the years and the beatings pile up?

“That’s a good question,” Silva said with a wry smile. “I’ll try.”

 

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Thanks to His Hype Man, Motivation Never a Problem for UFC Champ Dominick Cruz

Filed under: UFCLAS VEGAS — Before you ever see one of Dominick Cruz’s workouts, you hear it.

More to the point, you hear Mike Easton, who is a little like MMA’s version of the magical talking mirror in “Snow White.” Only instead of telling you who’…

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Dominick Cruz Mike EastonLAS VEGAS — Before you ever see one of Dominick Cruz‘s workouts, you hear it.

More to the point, you hear Mike Easton, who is a little like MMA’s version of the magical talking mirror in “Snow White.” Only instead of telling you who’s the fairest in the kingdom, Easton tells Cruz — and anyone else within earshot — who the baddest 135-pound man in the entire world is.

Better yet, Cruz never even has to ask in order to get the answer he wants to hear.

“Yeah, that’s right!” Easton shouted as Cruz shadow-boxed himself into a sweat inside the MGM Grand on Wednesday afternoon. “He can’t take you down! He ain’t faster than you! He ain’t ready for this!”

The way Cruz floats across the mat during these sessions, you can hardly tell if he’s listening. But Easton — a short, stocky bulldog of a man who looks a little like a fire hydrant that someone slapped a t-shirt on — knows that he is. He also knows the value of what he provides the champ during the tough times.


“I’m his hype man,” Easton explained. “Also his training partner, but his hype man too. Just like how Muhammad Ali always had somebody talking to him, that’s what it is. You always need somebody in your corner that’s going to talk you up. It makes you feel good.”

It also, according to Cruz, makes you feel not quite so horrible during the necessary evil of the weight cut. That’s why as he works to slim down to 135 pounds to defend his UFC bantamweight title against Urijah Faber at UFC 132 this Saturday night, he likes to have Easton right there, reminding him that this particular pain is only temporary.

“When you feel the weakest is when you’re cutting weight,” said Cruz. “It’s very important to have someone in your ear, telling you how strong you are when you’re feeling the weakest.”

But even though it looks like the easiest job in any champion’s entourage, it takes more than a big mouth to be a good hype man. You don’t just walk in off the street, tell a guy how great he is, then get a free plane ticket to Vegas out of it.

First, you have to make your hype mean something. And the best way to do that, according to both Cruz and Easton, is to have a personal role in beating down the champ before you build him up. That’s where Easton — who is 10-1 as a pro himself — really excels, said Cruz.

“Mike Easton’s my hype man, but on top of that, he’s a sick fighter. The reason he can be my hype man is because I have respect for his fighting abilities. He understands the game. He understands what it takes to win.”

A good hype man can even help you off the mats. As Cruz prepared to defend his WEC title against Scott Jorgensen last winter, it was Easton who stood off to the side during Cruz’s pre-fight interviews and added a little emphasis behind each one of his answers.

Was Jorgensen ready for Cruz’s speed and rhythm? Cruz shrugged at first. No, probably not, he told reporters.

“That’s right he’s not!” Easton shouted out from behind the media scrum. The effect it had on Cruz was visible and immediate.

Had Jorgensen really figured out his style, or was he just talking himself into thinking so? This time Cruz fired right back. Of course he was talking himself into it, said the champ.

“Yeah, he is!” shouted Easton. “He’s got no idea!”

Suddenly, everyone in the room was feeling motivated. You could almost see reporters looking at one another and thinking, where can I get one of these hype men? Does he do parties?

But to hear Easton tell it, having a motivator in your corner isn’t just a nice little perk — it’s downright necessary.

“You remind somebody what’s going on in their life, what all the blood, sweat and tears are for,” he said. “You do that, you’ll have them ready to bite the back of a chair. I learned it from my father, actually. He’s the same way. That’s my hype man.”

And even though Cruz gives no outward indication that he’s enjoying it, he’s come to rely on it, he said.

“The point of it is that, a lot of it, you’re not even paying attention to it. But it’s still there. It’s still entering your subconscious. You can never overdo that. There’s times when I’m focused on other things and not really paying attention to it, but it’s still getting in there and jumbling around a little bit before it leaves.”

Maybe the most amazing thing is that, no matter how much he hears the constant barrage of positivity coming out of Easton’s mouth — and, oh yes, it is constant and it is loud — he never gets sick of it. He never feels like telling his hype man to take five and just sit quietly for a little while.

“I think everybody around me probably wants to say that sometimes,” said Cruz. “That’s without a doubt. But they’re not the ones going in there and fighting. Until they are, they’re going to have to deal with Mike Easton yelling.”

Which is just fine by Easton. Whatever he can do to get the champ in fighting mode, he said, it’s his pleasure. Even he has to shout himself hoarse before the weekend is over.

“That’s my brother. My brother from another mother. He helps me out, so I help him out. He knows I can talk to him, so that’s what I do. That’s my job. That, and to beat the sh-t out of him.”

 

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Melvin Guillard a Future Professional Golfer? Sure, Why Not

Filed under: UFCLAS VEGAS — Melvin Guillard has his own way of doing things. Even normal things — simple things, at least in the world of pro fighting — quickly become a canvas for him to work on. Take Wednesday afternoon’s UFC 132 open workouts, fo…

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LAS VEGAS — Melvin Guillard has his own way of doing things. Even normal things — simple things, at least in the world of pro fighting — quickly become a canvas for him to work on. Take Wednesday afternoon’s UFC 132 open workouts, for instance.

Before stepping on the mats to show off his skills for media and fans, Guillard first stripped down to his underwear so that he could be lathered head to toe in…something. As he stood there in a ballroom at the MGM Grand with his eyes closed and arms out wide, getting oiled up in the middle of the afternoon as if there weren’t a room full of strangers gawking at him, it was plain to see that this was not a man who spends all that much time worrying what people think about him.

If he was, he probably wouldn’t have mentioned to reporters that his plans after he retires from professional fighting include playing on the PGA tour. As in, the golf one. And no, he’s not joking.

“People laugh at me all the time,” said Guillard, who claimed that, despite only playing golf for about a year, he now shoots in the 80s. “If y’all see my golf game you wouldn’t be laughing, because I will smoke y’all out there.”


Confidence, in case you couldn’t already tell, is something Guillard has never lacked. He had it on season two of The Ultimate Fighter, back when he had more raw talent than polish. He had it through his up-and-down years after the show, when he’d mix flashes of fighting brilliance with almost pathologically self-sabotaging acts both in and out of the cage.

Now he finally seems to have pulled it all together, and with his current four-fight win streak comes a matching ego. So what if he’s fighting Shane Roller on the Spike TV prelims of this card, and right after what would seem to be a much more high profile win over Evan Dunham in January? Regardless of where he may be in the pecking order at any given time, Guillard still has no problem declaring himself the best lightweight in the world.

“I can sit here and say that from my heart and from my soul,” he said. “I know I’m the best 155er. I know when guys are scheduled to fight me, I know they don’t want that fight. A lot of times, their managers probably go other routes of wanting to fight other guys. I’m the one guy that fighters right now don’t want to fight, because this is my time. I’m at the peak of my career, and I’m not even in my prime yet. I just hit 28. I still haven’t gotten old man strength yet. Right now, every fight’s going to be tough, and I’m not knocking any fighter in my weight class, but I’m one tough dude, man. I’ve taken my beatings. I’ve taken my lashes. I’ve been knocked down. And I’ll be damned if I’ll let anybody knock me down again in my life.”

But the fact that Guillard thinks so highly of his own skills only makes it more perplexing that he’s one of the few UFC lightweights on a win streak who isn’t clamoring for a title shot every time the mic gets passed his way. Not that he’d mind one, of course, but he admitted that he’s almost purposely put those aspirations aside for the moment.

Instead, his focus is simple: he just wants to stick around.

“You see a lot of guys come and go,” Guillard said. “They get cut all the time. I think a lot of guys are worried too much about title fights and winning belts. I care more about keeping my job and always being able to give you guys great fights. I always ask myself, how would I feel if a kid walked up to me and said, ‘Hey when’s your next fight in the UFC?’ and I’m not in the UFC anymore. That’s kind of heartbreaking as a person. You feel like a failure. I try my hardest to not worry about the hype and title fights and rankings. I just want to keep fighting, bring you guys great fights, and I treat every fight like a title fight.”

Fighting a guy like Roller — who was a good-but-not-great WEC lightweight before debuting in the UFC with a knockout of Thiago Tavares — may not be the kind of fight that vaults a guy immediately into the title picture. It might even be a bout where he has more to lose than to gain.

But Guillard? He just wants to fight and keep fighting as often as possible, he said. Other people may worry about getting the title shot as soon as possible, but he isn’t like other people.

Then again, most of us already knew that.

 

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Nate Marquardt’s Coach Still Struggling With Questions, but Finding Few Answers

Filed under: UFCWhen Trevor Wittman heard the news, all he wanted was to disappear. For years he’s worked with Nate Marquardt, honing his striking in Denver’s Grudge Training Center, and he went to Pittsburgh with his fighter last week expecting to com…

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When Trevor Wittman heard the news, all he wanted was to disappear. For years he’s worked with Nate Marquardt, honing his striking in Denver’s Grudge Training Center, and he went to Pittsburgh with his fighter last week expecting to come home a winner in yet another big UFC fight.

Then on the day of the weigh-ins he found out that Marquardt had been pulled from the fight and fired from the UFC for the elevated testosterone levels that were a result of his hormone replacement therapy, and suddenly Wittman felt like he could barely stand to show his face around colleagues and competitors he’s known for years.

“When it hit — and I know Nate feels the same way — but I can’t tell you the feeling I had at the weigh-ins when this was happening,” Wittman said. “I really felt like I wanted to go and put a hood over my head and walk out of there. There were spots where I was pushing myself to go back in the room and not answer calls from the press. I had to hide in the bushes, basically, all out of respect for Nate.”

To Wittman, the issue of testosterone replacement isn’t as complex as it is to some others. He sees it in terms of right and wrong, black and white. Either everyone should be allowed to see a doctor sanctioned by the UFC and the athletic commissions to address these issues, he said, or no one should be allowed to do it at all.

But using testosterone injections to artificially raise hormone levels from whatever point they’re at in a person’s body? That, Wittman said, is something he can’t support even when the levels are dropping naturally and legitimately.

“To me, if your testosterone levels are getting lower over the years, that’s normal. You’re getting older. As you get older in this sport, it’s common sense you’re not going to have the same testosterone levels as a 21-year-old man. But the big disadvantage a 21-year-old has when he comes into this is the knowledge and experience.

“If you have a 21-year-old come into this with those naturally high testosterone levels, and then you’ve got an older fighter — I’ll just pick an age, say, 35 — who has lower testosterone levels, the advantages of the older man are knowledge, experience. He’s seen it in all different aspects. He’s a veteran. To me, that’s a huge disadvantage for the younger man. Yeah, he’s going to be able to go, go, go. But that’s his advantage. Let him have it. And let’s outwork him. Let’s beat him with our experience. But if we make a 35 or 40-year-old fighter as strong as a 21-year-old, to me, that’s cutting corners.”

In the case of Marquardt, Wittman knew his fighter was undergoing testosterone treatments. He didn’t agree with it, he said, but he also didn’t feel like it was his place to tell a veteran fighter how to conduct his career.

What’s more, even though he felt like the testosterone use shouldn’t have been allowed, technically — at least if Marquardt could provide proof of his need for it and get his levels down to within a range acceptable by the commissions before each fight — it was. Marquardt was attempting to follow the rules laid out by the commissions, Wittman said. That’s why, in Marquardt’s mind, it wasn’t cheating at all.

“Nate Marquardt is a guy who’s never been untruthful with me. Everything that he tells me, and everything he told me going into this fight and back before New Jersey, it’s something that he truly believes in. He went and had his testosterone checked. And when I spoke to him about it, I could tell he really believes he’d done the right thing, because the doctors are telling him, ‘Your levels are low. You need this. This is why you’re tired. We’ll give you this and you’ll perform like you’re young again.’ Man, you start telling a guy that, he’s going to believe you.

“His honesty from the beginning — doing these tests, asking for permission to do this — that’s what hurt him. His honesty got him put in this situation. It’s so hard to watch one of the most honest guys I’ve ever trained — the biggest family man, the guy who signs every autograph — get scolded and cut and lose his career and get this brand on him, all because he felt like he was doing the right thing.”

Now Wittman’s fear is that the “brand” is not just on Marquardt, but also on his gym. He’s never advocated use of hormone replacement therapy, he said, but by not doing more to dissuade his fighters from it, he can’t help but wonder if he’s not complicit in it.

“I didn’t get into it. I kind of put my earplugs in,” Wittman said. “I look at it as white and black, like you’re still doing an enhancing kind of thing. But if the doctor okays it, does that make it right? I don’t know. That’s something I can’t explain, but I’ll tell you what I’m doing now, and that’s sit down with every fighter I deal with and find out if they’re seeing a doctor and for what reason. If it’s anything that has to do with enhancing, then I’m going to step away.”

Maybe the worst part, according to Wittman, is that as far as he can tell, the hormones and injections don’t make that much of a difference on fight night. He thinks it’s more of a mental aid than a physical one, he said, and when he sees fighters trying to become experts at it, he can’t help but think back to boxer Verno Phillips, who used to drop weight by eating two mangoes a day.

At the end of the day, Wittman said, you still have to fight the fight, and a few nanograms per deciliter of testosterone rarely has the final say on the outcome.

“I don’t care what you put in your system. I don’t care who you hire to do your nutrition. It comes down to, you got two men in the ring. You might break your hand in there. Well, you’ve got to overcome the broken hand. You might have a bad weight cut and you still have to get the last five pounds off, even if it’s unhealthy. I don’t care. Those are excuses that go out the window the moment the close the cage door. You might have the flu a week and a half before. Fine. This is the fight game. This is what you deal with. You deal with injuries. You deal with illness. You deal with getting older. That’s the game.”

 

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