You aren’t going to like this.
The price of expunging performance-enhancing drugs from mixed martial arts will be steep, and fans will need to shoulder at least some of the cost.
Sorry, I know that stinks to hear. At this point, though, we all owe it to each other to start telling the difficult truth. In the wake of last week’s revelation that former middleweight champion Anderson Silva failed a pre-fight drug test for his UFC 183 bout against Nick Diaz, drastic action is necessary.
No one can say for sure if there is a PEDs epidemic going on in MMA, but it’s sure starting to seem that way. Silva’s positive test felt like a tipping point of sorts. If the consensus greatest fighter of all time is on steroids, it’s pretty easy to imagine the rest of the sport might have a fairly widespread problem.
That should concern you greatly if you care at all about MMA’s future. It should worry you for the health and safety of the men and women who make a living inside the cage. Maybe, if you’re a forward-thinking consumer, it should even make you wonder what ultimately happens to the money you spend each month on cable and pay-per-view television.
Rooting PEDs out of MMA won’t be easy. It’s going to demand a fairly comprehensive reimagining of our sport, how it’s regulated and how we consume it. At this point, though, we may not have any other choice.
So, where to begin?
Here’s a five-point program on how to start weeding performance enhancers out of MMA…