(Can we go back to those innocent, joyful days when you didn’t give a damn about your favorite fighter’s T/E ratio? / Photo via MMAWeekly)
By Jon Mariani
Drugs are bad, m’kay? At least that’s the conventional wisdom regarding the use of performance enhancing drugs in mixed martial arts. For the past 12 years, state athletic commissions as well as the UFC have tried to combat steroid use (and hormone therapy abuse) through pre- and post-fight testing, and punitive measures like suspensions and fines.
Some would argue that commissions and promoters should go even further with their anti-PED efforts, enacting more stringent testing for athletes. We say, what’s the point? Why burn so much money and man-hours trying to eradicate a problem that can never be eradicated? Ultimately, it might be better for the sport if all MMA fighters were allowed to use PEDs. Seriously. Here’s why that might not be the worst idea in the world…
It Would Level the Playing Field
When asked what percentage of fighters in MMA currently use PEDs, the most conservative response is usually around 50% of fighters; on the other side of the spectrum, estimates from fighters themselves go as as high as 90%. If those numbers are to be trusted, that would mean the majority of fighters currently use PEDs. It makes sense that so many fighters are using considering how poor the current testing is.
The fighters who don’t use PEDs face a clear disadvantage when they step into the cage against opponents who do. There’s also the murky waters of testosterone replacement therapy hall passes, which are being given away like candy. Legalizing PEDs would mean that all fighters could use, which would mean fighters who would like to use but currently don’t because it’s illegal would get on the gear. For the first time since athletic commissions began drug-testing MMA fighters, competition would be truly fair.
(Can we go back to those innocent, joyful days when you didn’t give a damn about your favorite fighter’s T/E ratio? / Photo via MMAWeekly)
By Jon Mariani
Drugs are bad, m’kay? At least that’s the conventional wisdom regarding the use of performance enhancing drugs in mixed martial arts. For the past 12 years, state athletic commissions as well as the UFC have tried to combat steroid use (and hormone therapy abuse) through pre- and post-fight testing, and punitive measures like suspensions and fines.
Some would argue that commissions and promoters should go even further with their anti-PED efforts, enacting more stringent testing for athletes. We say, what’s the point? Why burn so much money and man-hours trying to eradicate a problem that can never be eradicated? Ultimately, it might be better for the sport if all MMA fighters were allowed to use PEDs. Seriously. Here’s why that might not be the worst idea in the world…
It Would Level the Playing Field
When asked what percentage of fighters in MMA currently use PEDs, the most conservative response is usually around 50% of fighters; on the other side of the spectrum, estimates from fighters themselves go as as high as 90%. If those numbers are to be trusted, that would mean the majority of fighters currently use PEDs. It makes sense that so many fighters are using considering how poor the current testing is.
The fighters who don’t use PEDs face a clear disadvantage when they step into the cage against opponents who do. There’s also the murky waters of testosterone replacement therapy hall passes, which are being given away like candy. Legalizing PEDs would mean that all fighters could use, which would mean fighters who would like to use but currently don’t because it’s illegal would get on the gear. For the first time since athletic commissions began drug-testing MMA fighters, competition would be truly fair.
Prohibition Does Not Work
First we can look at the alcohol prohibition enacted in the 1920s and discern what an utter failure it was. Then we can look the current ‘War on drugs’ and see how well that is going. Drug prohibition has never worked and may never work, so wouldn’t a better option be to turn to regulation?
Alex Rodriguez was recently busted in the Biogenesis scandal. But was it because he failed a drug test? No. Despite enhancing their testing methods, the MLB was unable to catch A-Rod cheating. The situation came to light only because Dr. Pedro Bosch, the medical director of Biogenesis of America, agreed to work with MLB investigators.
The occasional high-profile steroid busts in MMA only scratch the surface of what’s happening in terms of PED usage among fighters, and athletic commissions simply don’t have the firepower to do anything about it. Let’s stop pretending that it’s a problem we can fix, and start facing reality.
Fans Simply Do Not Care
The revitalization of Vitor Belfort‘s career was one of the best stories of 2013. With three consecutive head-kick knockouts of increasingly decorated opponents, The Phenom truly lived up to his nickname. Whether or not he receives a therapeutic use exemption for his fight with Chris Weidman in July, the event will likely sell out and produce a significant amount of pay-per-view buys. The reason the numbers will not be affected by Belfort’s testosterone use, is because most casual fans don’t care if fighters are on PEDs. In fact, in this day and age most people expect fighters to be on something.
If you frequent any MMA forum, you will likely find members who either defend PED usage, or are simply indifferent to the issue. Most people want their favorite fighters to fight often and produce spectacular violence. If using PEDs allows athletes to train longer, recover faster, and increase their power, isn’t that exactly what we want? Don’t we want our favorite fighters to have long careers, so they can compete at an advanced age with all their skills and experience intact? If a relatively few amount of observers have an issue with PED use and fans are able to reap the benefits of athletes using them, where exactly is the problem?
One of Dana White’s greatesttalents is burying fighters. When old, broke war dogs speak out against the UFC, White cuts them down with assertions that he “makes millionaires” and labels detractors as “goofs” and “dummies.”
But can White do that to Georges St-Pierre, who recently called out the UFC for their drug testing policies. Well, we’ve already had a small taste of White’s verbal stylings. He questioned GSP’s manhood, implying that GSP airing his grievances with the media was somehow cowardly. He also said GSP’s actions were “kooky,” and that his claims were ridiculous.
That was just the opening salvo. What’ll Dana White say about his former meal ticket six months from now, a year from now, two years from now, when GSP’s relevance fades and insulting him carries less risk?
One of Dana White’s greatesttalents is burying fighters. When old, broke war dogs speak out against the UFC, White cuts them down with assertions that he “makes millionaires” and labels detractors as “goofs” and “dummies.”
But can White do that to Georges St-Pierre, who recently called out the UFC for their drug testing policies. Well, we’ve already had a small taste of White’s verbal stylings. He questioned GSP’s manhood, implying that GSP airing his grievances with the media was somehow cowardly. He also said GSP’s actions were “kooky,” and that his claims were ridiculous.
That was just the opening salvo. What’ll Dana White say about his former meal ticket six months from now, a year from now, two years from now, when GSP’s relevance fades and insulting him carries less risk?
1. Dana will insult GSP’s character.
Bringing up a former fighter’s character flaws is a fantastic way to defuse any criticism against the UFC. The UFC is bad? Well the guy who said that is a horrible person, so their points, no matter how valid, don’t stand in light of their moral turpitude.
GSP—the greatest welterweight of all time—wasn’t that good, or at least that’s what Dana White might eventually argue. He’ll say that GSP was the champ during an era where the welterweight division was less-developed and lacked depth. [Insert champ at the time of this hypothetical conversation] is better than GSP because the division is stacked now. Back when GSP had the belt, it was older guys like Matt Hughes and BJ Penn, and non-factors like Dan Hardy and Thiago Alves. The “great” GSP was only great at stalling his way to decision victory after decision victory.
3. Dana will shut GSP out of the UFC Hall of Fame (and erase him from UFC history if things get bad enough).
Also known as the Frank Shamrock treatment. If Dana White doesn’t like you enough and you say enough bad things about the company, Zuffa will make sure you don’t exist, at least not in their “official” version of history.
Imagining a hypothetical future interview with Dana White about GSP.
Let’s imagine what White would say about GSP in the future, if the drug testing situation devolves and GSP becomes an enemy of the Zuffa state [Note: Dana white didn’t actually say any of this; it’s all hypothetical and just for fun]:
“GSP has this clean image and stuff like that, but he is not a good guy. He has never been a good guy. He is a greedy, sleazy guy. That bozo will put his name on anything for a few bucks. And he’s just a headache. All that legal bullshit he’s going through, it’s because he’s greedy and he’s not a good guy. I’m just happy that I never have to deal with GSP ever again.
And let’s talk about his fuckin’ “legacy” for a second. The guy beat an ancient Matt Hughes—who was the greatest welterweight ever but old by then—for the title. Then he fuckin’ loses it to MATT SERRA. Goofs on these fuckin’ message boards and on the Internet are always bitching about GSP and how we don’t honor him enough and how we don’t put him in our hall of fame. Guess what? GSP wasn’t that fuckin’ good. He never killed people like Jon Jones and Anderson Silva did. The only guys GSP killed were guys like Jon Fitch who couldn’t make it in the UFC. When GSP fought a real guy, he clinched them for five rounds because he was scared for his life. And that’s what GSP is, scared. He was too scared to fight real guys, he was too scared to go up in weight and fight Anderson Silva, and he was too scared to be a man and settle his problems with us like a man. He’s a coward, he’s not one of the greats. Yet all these “fans” on the fuckin’ Internet go on about it, bunch of fucking clowns. Next question…”
Media shills will agree, and if they don’t, their disagreement will only be tepid, and they’ll still praise White for “being real.” Fans who remember or who don’t listen to Zuffa will argue for GSP, but will be drowned out by “GSP sucks lol.”
Hopefully, this isn’t what’s in store for GSP and his legacy.
“It bothered me enormously,” St-Pierre said (in a translation by MMAFighting.com). “That’s one of the reasons why I stopped fighting. Not really to teach them a lesson, because that would also punish me. I wanted to do something for the sport. I love the sport. I see the direction it’s going, and I don’t think it makes any sense. This is stupid.”
“I tried to do something to change the sport,” St-Pierre continued. “Unfortunately, there were other people, for different reasons, maybe for money, in fear of losing money, because if you canceled the fight because someone tested positive there are millions of dollars [lost]. Also, the sport’s image…If you start testing everyone, how many will get caught? I don’t want to say in public because I don’t want to accuse anyone, but the sport’s image will be hurt. Don’t forget, I have internal information. I’m an athlete. I know what goes on, so that disappointed me greatly.”
Later, St-Pierre described the UFC as a “monopoly,” and suggested that he wouldn’t return to competition until the promotion’s drug-testing policy was improved:
(The UFC’s French-Canadian company-man has officially left the building. / Photo via Getty)
“It bothered me enormously,” St-Pierre said (in a translation by MMAFighting.com). “That’s one of the reasons why I stopped fighting. Not really to teach them a lesson, because that would also punish me. I wanted to do something for the sport. I love the sport. I see the direction it’s going, and I don’t think it makes any sense. This is stupid.”
“I tried to do something to change the sport,” St-Pierre continued. “Unfortunately, there were other people, for different reasons, maybe for money, in fear of losing money, because if you canceled the fight because someone tested positive there are millions of dollars [lost]. Also, the sport’s image…If you start testing everyone, how many will get caught? I don’t want to say in public because I don’t want to accuse anyone, but the sport’s image will be hurt. Don’t forget, I have internal information. I’m an athlete. I know what goes on, so that disappointed me greatly.”
Later, St-Pierre described the UFC as a “monopoly,” and suggested that he wouldn’t return to competition until the promotion’s drug-testing policy was improved:
“This is a relatively new sport. There’s one organization that has a monopoly, so the fighters don’t have much power. They can’t really talk because if one says what he thinks, he will get punished.
“If we want the sport to be accepted worldwide, like baseball, hockey, football, soccer, I believe [drug testing] is the thing to do. I think it’s just a matter of time before it happens, it’s just that I tried to make it happen now. Maybe they didn’t like the idea because if I did it now, it would lead to others doing it and maybe that’s not something they wanted to happen.
“It disappointed me. You know that there are things I can’t say. I’m holding back. I’m a public person…
“No wants to talk about [drugs in MMA], but I think we need to talk about it. It’s a problem. I wanted to remain diplomatic, but unfortunately there were people who weren’t ready to change things. I’m certain it’s a question of time. And maybe if things change one day, I’ll return.”
Understandably, the UFC’s top brass is upset that the formerly reserved and obedient St-Pierre is putting the promotion’s business out on the street — and subtly threatening to drop more bombshells in the future. After St-Pierre’s comments were first published, UFC CEO Lorenzo “The Body” Fertitta immediately went on defense, saying he was “shocked” and “disappointed” by what GSP had said.
“We’ve always had an open line of communication with him and I’d like to know why he feels that way,” Fertitta told Yahoo!’s Kevin Iole.
“It was extremely disappointing to hear Georges make those comments because I don’t think any organization has embraced drug testing as we have,” Fertitta said. “We have not only agreed to pay when the commission has said it wants to do enhanced testing, we’ve encouraged it. We have no problem with testing. When we serve as the commission [in areas out of the country where there is no commission], we test everyone on the card so we are thorough and there can be no claims of bias.
“Whatever a commission would want us to do in terms of testing, we would embrace it. We’ll do as many as they want. I think perhaps Georges’ people didn’t communicate to him in detail everything we’d do as they tried to arrange the testing for the fight with him and Johny.”
“Obviously, we know there are some athletes that do cheat, but we are catching them,” Fertitta added in an interview with ESPN’s Brett Okamoto. “Hopefully, because the penalties for being caught have gone to the extent they have — monetary, suspensions, revocations of licenses — it’s convincing these guys it’s not worth it.”
St-Pierre is right about one thing: It’s not in the UFC’s best interest, financially speaking, to have every drug-cheater on its roster caught and exposed. But does the promotion have a responsibility to employ stricter drug-testing than what it has generally relied on through athletic commissions? And has GSP become a permanent enemy of the UFC by publicly suggesting that?
At the risk of lapsing into conspiracy-mode, the timing of resignation is undeniably suspicious. The UFC just announced that Vitor Belfort vs. Chris Weidman was going to take place in Las Vegas, and Kizer was previously on record saying “I don’t see Vitor Belfort getting a TRT exemption from us.” However, that stance had recently changed. It’s hard to accept that this was Kizer’s decision alone.
In honor of his resignation, I thought it would be a good time to look back a few moments from Keith Kizer’s career that will define his legacy…
“Just because a judge’s scorecard ends up even, doesn’t mean the judge necessarily thought the fight as a whole was even,” Kizer said. “It could be that a judge has six rounds for each fighter, but the six rounds she gave fighter A, she gave them to him easily and the six rounds she gave fighter B, they were really close rounds. That’s pretty much how it was last night.”
At the risk of lapsing into conspiracy-mode, the timing of resignation is undeniably suspicious. The UFC just announced that Vitor Belfort vs. Chris Weidman was going to take place in Las Vegas, and Kizer was previously on record saying “I don’t see Vitor Belfort getting a TRT exemption from us.” However, that stance had recently changed. It’s hard to accept that this was Kizer’s decision alone.
In honor of his resignation, I thought it would be a good time to look back a few moments from Keith Kizer’s career that will define his legacy…
“Just because a judge’s scorecard ends up even, doesn’t mean the judge necessarily thought the fight as a whole was even,” Kizer said. “It could be that a judge has six rounds for each fighter, but the six rounds she gave fighter A, she gave them to him easily and the six rounds she gave fighter B, they were really close rounds. That’s pretty much how it was last night.”
While the points about the problem with the scoring system as generally valid, in that fight that wasn’t the case. Mayweather clearly won at least 10 rounds by a decent margin. This comment combined with his relentless defense of his employees (See: Mazzagatti, Steve) shows you the best and worst of Keith Kizer. On one hand he had a problem admitting when there was a problem. On the other hand he was loyal to his employees, and publicly protected them.
I would love to work for Kizer. No matter how many times I screwed up and was blasted by UFC commentator Joe Rogan, my hypothetical job would be safe.
After Lamont Peterson failed his VADA drug test for exogenous testosterone in May 2012, Kizer had this to say:
BoxingScene.com: If VADA was not involved, a lot of people have asked if this was something that the Nevada Commission would have caught in Peterson’s system?
Keith Kizer: Probably not from the facts that I know. His [testosterone] level, by his doctor, was kept under 4 to 1, which is the lowest level used… some use 4 to 1 and some use 6 to 1. Even VADA uses 4 to 1, but they also use this CIR [carbon isotope ratio] test to detect synthetic testosterone regardless of your level and that’s what happened here.
My understanding is that his level was 3.77 to 1… and I don’t know if that was a purposeful attempt to conceal [his use] by keeping it under 4 to 1 or not. That’s a question for someone else and not for me. But regardless, the CIR was able to catch it without the level being high.
Here Kizer is essentially admitting that the testing that Nevada does is insufficient, though not directly. He is saying that it is possible Peterson was manipulating his testosterone levels, and that Nevada wouldn’t have caught him. Had it not been for VADA, Peterson’s use of testosterone would have gone undetected.
The introduction of commission-led supplemental testing
The October 2013 fight between Timothy Bradley and Juan Manuel Marquez was once in jeopardy due to a disagreement over which supplemental drug testing agency was going to be chosen to perform the drug testing for that fight. That issue was resolved when Top Rank CEO Bob Arum contacted Kizer to run random drug testing through NSAC.
In MMA this testing was proposed as an alternative solution for the GSP vs. Hendricks fight, although ultimately it was rejected. It was also used as a punitive measure against Josh Barnett, as a condition for him to get a license to fight, due to his past drug test failures.
To me, this testing was Kizer’s crowning achievement. Drug testing in combat sports is woefully inadequate. Subjecting fighters to more enhanced and random testing is a good thing. It may end up being the only truly worthwhile thing Kizer ever did in his position as executive director.
“All 20 UFC Fight Night 29 fighters passed their drug tests. Brazilian MMA Athletic Commission (CABMMA) tested every fighter before their bouts on Oct. 9 in Barueri, Brazil. After the bouts, the headliners – Demian Maia and Jake Shields – were tested again, in addition to four other randomly selected fighters…all results came back negative.”
“All 20 UFC Fight Night 29 fighters passed their drug tests. Brazilian MMA Athletic Commission (CABMMA) tested every fighter before their bouts on Oct. 9 in Barueri, Brazil. After the bouts, the headliners – Demian Maia and Jake Shields – were tested again, in addition to four other randomly selected fighters…all results came back negative.”
