There was a time when the biggest concern in MMA was that a fighter would test positive for steroids. There’d be shock and a little bit of outrage, but people would move on and accept that it is a part of the sport.
Well, those times are well behind us.
Because of a loop hole in the ABC’s drug testing guidelines, more and more fighters are using Testosterone Replacement Therapy to counter low testosterone levels. In the past, we’ve heard of Chael Sonnen, Nate Marquardt and Dan Henderson all requiring TRT to raise their low levels of testosterone.
Well, we can now add Frank Mir to that list.
per Larry Pepe, Frank Mir met all requirements for & received TUE for TRT for UFC 146 … this sport is becoming a joke…
— Robert Joyner (@robnashville) June 1, 2012
This sport is getting more and more ridiculous every day.
The Nevada commission awarded Chael Sonnen a Therapeutic Use Exception for UFC 147 and an advisory role for dealing with TRT. On that same day, Nick Diaz received a very harsh penalty for smoking marijuana before his UFC 143 fight against Carlos Condit.
If this is the direction that the sport is going, I’ll be honest and say that I really don’t want to be a part of it. If fighters are able to “game” the system by getting an endocrinologist to sign off on them having low T levels, it changes how the sport is perceived.
The UFC does have a problem with testing; it’s just not the one they think.
Marijuana and steroids are old news. The focus now must be shifted to how many fighters in their employ actually require TRT and how many of them are just using it as an excuse to boost their testosterone prior to fights.
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