The drama surrounding the use of illicit substances in mixed martial arts is building to a fever pitch.
In the past few months, we’ve seen Muhammed “King Mo” Lawal, Nick Diaz and Alistair Overeem potentially lose championship fights—all real, main-event-headlining matches that fans are interested in—due to failed drug screenings.
It’s quickly becoming an epidemic without a cure and without any real end in sight, at least under current state commission rules.
Cristiane “Cyborg” Justino—formerly known as Cyborg Santos—failed her test for performance-enhancing drugs before any of the three names I mentioned above, testing positive for stanozolol metabolites after laying a horrific beating on Hiroko Yamanaka at the Dec. 17 “Strikeforce: Melendez vs. Masvidal” event.
Much like Overeem, the Justino failure seemingly confirmed what many fans suspected: that no woman could achieve the kind of physical makeup or brute power that Cyborg possessed without some kind of artificial help.
Justino went before the California State Athletic Commission on Monday afternoon to plead her case. Unlike so many other drug failures we’ve seen in the past, Justino didn’t try to convince the commission that she used tainted supplements.
She confessed in full to taking the drugs and took responsibility for her actions, ultimately asking the commission to reduce her one-year sentence to a more manageable six months.
“I made a mistake,” she said. “I do not condone the use of performance-enhancing drugs in MMA.”
Her approach was admirable, but the result was the same.
The commission voted to uphold the full suspension, meaning she’s out of action until at least December.
“Intentionally or unintentionally, the opponent was put in undue danger at that match,” CSAC commissioner VanBuren Lemons said.
A Strikeforce representative confirmed after the hearing that Justino had been stripped of her Strikeforce title.
I’m glad Justino admitted her wrongdoing.
But whether or not you believe that steroids should be legal in sports—and that’s a debate for another day—the fact remains that Justino broke clearly-defined rules by taking a performance-enhancing drug that is banned for use in athletic competitions by the State of California.
That’s the bottom line.
It doesn’t matter if Justino took the stanozolol because a coach told her it was a weight-loss aid. She’s a grown woman and she’s wholly responsible for what she puts in her body.
It’s her paycheck on the line and her career at risk, and therefore it’s her responsibility to check out whatever substances her coaches might be recommending she try out.
Let’s hope she’s learned from this mistake, because I’d sure love to see her in an eventual fight with Ronda Rousey.
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