Alistair Overeem‘s failing of his pre-fight drug test is abhorrent. Not because he failed, but because now fans won’t get to see the greatest heavyweight fight in recent memory between him and UFC heavyweight champion Junior dos Santos.
Fans were robbed of a great fight, of a chance to see the lineal heavyweight championship merge with the UFC heavyweight championship. And why, because of some increased testosterone? Laughable! Absurd!
This whole debacle shows one of the biggest flaws in MMA and in sports as a whole: There are banned substances.
No substance should be banned in any sport, period.
The purpose of sports is competition and entertainment. Performance enhancers increase both of these. They make athletes more competitive and, therefore, make the sports they partake in more entertaining to the viewer.
What would be the downside of legalizing all steroids and other forms of performance enhancers?
There’d be more home runs, more touchdowns and, in MMA’s case, more knockouts and less canceled title fights.
Think about it: Having banned substances cost us Condit vs. Diaz II and Overeem vs. dos Santos. Was it worth it? Was it worth losing great fights to have purportedly clean athletes?
The crusade against performance enhancers is a clever farce, a dog and pony show that lets the sports organizations pretend that their athletes are more amazing than they really are. It’s an illusion that only those with a gross amount of naivety believe.
Of course, here is where critics of performance enhancers make a pathetic attempt at moralizing and say that the health of the athletes is paramount. If you don’t like performance enhancers, don’t watch any sports; “it’s hard to find the moral high ground when we’re all standing in the mud.”
Such a stance ignores the stark realities of the sports world. The health and well-being of the athletes is the least important thing in the sports world—the NFL’s recent concern over devastating hits and concussions notwithstanding.
Professional athletes are employed for two purposes: To entertain the fans and to generate revenue. The legalization of performance enhancing drugs would increase their capacity to do both.
It’s true that there’d be health repercussions down the road; however, if the athletes are worried about their health, they’re in the wrong business. Professional sports is a brutal world and the athletes were aware of the risks when they made their choice.
They risk their bodies for everlasting fame and, in the cases of the more fortunate, are made wealthy in return. And, “if you’re going to be a cripple, it’s better to be a rich cripple.”
Athletes will always find ways around tests, anyone who denies this is naive. Nothing on earth can stop performance enhancers, not Congress, not internet writers, nothing. So why not then level the playing field for all athletes in the world and let them achieve new peaks of chemically-enhanced excellence?
Yes, the glory of professional sports never fails to exact its toll in broken bones, dementia, shredded tendons and other physiological calamities. However, the body is only temporary—even to the healthy—while the glory one achieves in the cage or on the gridiron lasts for all eternity.
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