(If you’ve ever seen the kind of bedbugs that Oakland produces, then you’d be less inclined to call Chael a cheater is all we’re saying.)
Well, well, well. As if it wasn’t bad enough that a mild-mannered, unassuming guy like Chael Sonnen lost *his* UFC middleweight championship due to a misunderstanding of the rules back at UFC 117, and shortly thereafter found himself thrust into the center of an elaborate conspiracy (that’s right, conspiracy) that attempted to invalidate the four and a half round ass whooping he laid out on Anderson Silva, now he has this to deal with this. The poor guy.
You see, Potato Nation, when you become the best at something, be it sports, politics, or whatever else, the common folk can’t help but become jealous of your accomplishments, to the point that they will go out of their way to try and discredit what you have worked so hard to achieve. Such was the case for Herman Cain, and now it appears that none other than HH Chael Sonnen has found himself in the public’s crosshairs as well. As we all know, Sonnen is the greatest mixed martial artist of all time, bar none, and because of this, everyone with a University of Phoenix Health Care degree is trying to use their “science” to tear him down. Even though he was granted a therapeutic use exemption to help him deal with his inability to produce testosterone, a real, crippling disease that many MMA fighters face, haters are still coming out of the woodwork to try and soil the name of a man who literally defines “upstanding citizen” with his every action.
Today’s mountebank is none other than MMAJunkies go-to medicine man, Dr. Johnny Benjamin, who boldly claimed that the only reason Sonnen’s body cannot produce the testosterone it should is due to the fact that he definitely used steroids in the past. Here’s what he told BloodyElbow:
Was Chael Sonnen a big time collegiate wrestler? Yes he was. I’m going to opine and say to you, there’s no way in the world you get to the level of collegiate wrestling that Chael Sonnen was at, with hypogonadism. Let me explain to you why. Hypogonadism means that the testes did not produce enough testosterone for one to normally mature. He wasn’t on TRT as a teenager. He became this big, muscled up monster and NCAA wrestler with hypogonadism? Hell no.
The truth of the matter is, you could never get to that level, because you’re not going to have the muscle mass and strength to get you there. They’re going to run you over. Your body will not allow you to develop enough muscle and strength to compete at your size. If he has hypogonadism, it’s from one thing, and one thing only, because he treated himself with steroids in the past, and wrecked his testes. That’s it.
We may be out of line here, “Dr.” Benjamin, but how dare you. To think that a straight-laced guy like Chael would even consider taking advantage of the system is not only shocking, but could be considered slander as well.
Obviously we’re only kidding here, as Benjamin’s claims, though lacking actual proof, aren’t exactly outside the realm of possibility when dealing with a habitual line stepper such as Sonnen. But what does that mean for guys like Dan Henderson, Frank Mir, and the other MMA fighters that have applied for TRT exemption? All of them couldn’t have used roids in the past, right? Oh how the plot thickens.
And when asked about the possibility of the UFC drug testing its own athletes, as Dana White recently stated was on the horizon for the organization, Dr. Benjamin stated that it could only lead to more corruption within the drug testing circuit:
It’s a conflict of interest. If you’re going to look like you’re a fair organization that’s trying to create a level playing field for everyone, then you can’t do it yourself. The problem is, our big guys never test positive, but your fringe guys do, and get exposed.
If you know something that may wreck the biggest name in your sport, and you’re the only one that knows, will you expose it? If the guys who are the very biggest draws test positive, would you report it? It’s like if a tree falls in the woods, did it make a noise. It’s a real gut check at that point. You’re going to ruin a whole card if your main event guy tests positive? You can’t put yourself in that position. You have to let somebody else do it, and if a test is positive, it’s positive. You never touched it. You’ve got nothing to do with it. You’re not protecting or shielding anyone.
Dr. Benjamin definitely makes another good point here, and one that I hadn’t really considered when thinking over this issue. Imagine if Alistair Overeem’s horsepiss was caught by the UFC and the UFC alone. Do you think that they’d cost themselves one of the biggest cards/matchups of the year due to a high T/E ratio? Methinks not.
But what say you, Potato Nation?