(If it weren’t for Lou Ferrigno, Phil would’ve never had to deal with this MMA drug testing bullshit.)
Phil Baroni has never been afraid to speak his mind. Whether he’s dishing on pre-fight abstinence, the fragility of his own mind, or childhood obesity, “The New York Bad Ass” never pulls any punches, and in fact it’s one of the many reasons we love the guy. So perhaps we shouldn’t be surprised that, during a recent interview with Fight Sport Asia, Baroni not only came out as a proponent of steroid use in MMA, but more or less admitted that most of his PRIDE cohorts were probably juiced during the Japanese promotion’s heyday. Here’s what he told the publication:
I want to see the best fighters, I want to see who is the strongest the best! Guys should be able to do whatever it takes to be the strongest. Getting choked and kicked in the head is really bad for you, worse than pot , TRT, or steroids. I don’t care who’s the cleanest, I wanna’ see the strongest, the fastest and the most gnarly fighters. I don’t want to see who is the best at passing drug test. Overeem isn’t the only guy taking shit, he just got caught. I wanna’ see the baddest mother fuckers going at it. That’s why PRIDE was the best — I wanna see a 205 (ripped) Wanderlei Silva kill dudes!
Most of you will not likely find this revelation to be all that surprising considering, you know, the above photo of Baroni. It does, however, seem a little inconsistent of Baroni to be advocating a substance that he has vehemently denied using in the past, despite testing positive for Boldenone and Stanozolol Metabolites in the aftermath of his second round submission loss to Frank Shamrock back in 2007. Unfortunately for guys like Baroni and Alistair Overeem, the various athletic commissions regulating the sport don’t seem to agree, as Baroni was suspended for six months for his infraction. And we all know what fate Alistair was sentenced to.
We’ve had this debate far too many times here at CP ever since Overeem pissed dirty, and the general consensus amongst the nation seems to be that we should create a promotion, a literal “Super Fight League” if you will, in which fighters are allowed to juice, snort meth, and roll their gloves in broken glass before every fight, and leave promotions like the UFC to the “clean,” “natural,” and “morally righteous” fighters of the world. The bums.
Former UFC Heavyweight champ Cain Velasquez would apparently be one of these fighters to fall into the latter category, as he told MMAWeekly earlier today that he is all for more drug testing in the sport, as it creates an even playing field for those involved:
All I can say is I don’t do any of that stuff and I’m happy to test. It puts you at ease to know that your opponent is also clean like you are. Puts everybody on the same playing field. And that’s all I hope for, for myself, is to fight somebody on the same playing field as I am. I support [more frequent testing], why not? I’m not doing anything that I need to watch out for, so I’m all for it. It’s no big deal to me.
How’s the weather up on that pedestal, Cain? YOU THINK YOU’RE BETTER THAN US?!
We’re not going to ask you where you stand on this issue, because we’ve already beaten that chemically-altered horse into an early grave. Instead, we’d like you to lay out what exactly we can do to make this “Super Juice League” idea a reality, and what other kinds of crazy stipulations we can throw into the mix. A ring of fire? A mat littered with tacks and dirty needles? Somehow incorporating a jousting element?
Help us sort this out.
-J. Jones