Filed under: Fighting, Strikeforce, FanHouse Exclusive, News
Before the start of two separate matches on national television Saturday night, fighters K.J. Noons and “King Mo” Muhammed Lawal could be seen inhaling from small, cylindrical canisters handed to them by their cornermen. In Lawal’s case, the canister — which contained canned oxygen — was furnished to his camp two weeks ago by a company named Oxygen4Energy. Lawal tried the product and liked it enough that he decided to use it on fight night.
By the next morning, though, a small controversy had erupted. The MMA site MiddleEasy.com published a story which stated that “compressed oxygen is a substance banned from nearly every endurance sport, including MMA; in every state, including Texas.”
Why then, were Lawal and Noons using it in so openly in public? And were they openly breaking the rules by using performance-enhancing substances?