UFC Fights

The first thing many newcomers say when they see an MMA heavyweight match – albeit UFC, Pride, IFL, two guys going at it over a girl in a back alley, whatever – is “those guys have to be juicin’”. MMA defenders have to launch into their fall-back defense: you don’t know anything, these guys are machines, they work their butts off and are pure animals…dedication…discipline…nutrition…blah blah blah.

In the past few weeks however, details of steroid and other substance abuse by well-known fighters have become common knowledge, forcing many enthusiasts – myself included – to really wonder how many of those guys ARE on steroids?

To be sure, the tragic murder-suicide of Chris Benoit and his family have shed light into dark places that people like UFC President Dana White would rather the fans not see.
“I’m never excited when guys test positive for anything, whether it’s casual drugs or social drugs or steroids,” White said.

“It’s one of those things. As the sport gets bigger and more and more people get into the sport, things happen.”

When Phil Baroni tested positive recently for both Boldenone and Stanozolol metabolites (or your garden variety roids to the average know-nothing) after his June 22nd fight with Ken Shamrock, he was banned for a year – the most common, and some would say strictest, penalty that can be levied against fighters.

Whatever the penalty, something is not getting through to fighters. Nate Marquardt and Steven Bonnar both served year long bans for steroid use – Bonnar indeed makes his return this Saturday to the Ultimate Fighting Championship. Diego Sanchez was banned for three months after he failed a substance test following his UFC bout against “Diesel” Joe Riggs. Melvin “The Young Assassin” Guillard and Nate Diaz both tested positive for banned substances – Diaz for weed (Really? How can you ban someone for weed? It doesn’t make you a more intense fighter – well I guess you could picture your opponent as a batch of chocolate chip cookie dough…) and Guillard for trace amounts of cocaine, perhaps why Guillard after his quick loss to Joe Stevenson said he just wanted to get out of there “So we can dance man! WooOOoooooO!!!

Finally, and this kills the teenager in me who idolized the master, the legendary Royce Gracie tested positive for nandrolone after facing Kazushi Sakuraba at K-1 Heroes Dynamite USA. Now to be fair, Sakuraba had beaten pretty much every member of the Gracie family in the ring, Royce included, but still, Royce was the archetypal good guy, the guy who when asked what advice he would give to kids thinking of joining the MMA ranks in an interview with fightingmaster.com responded, “Train hard,” he said, “but do not take steroids.” When the California Athletic Commission released its results from the drug tests it found his levels were so high “it would not register on the laboratory’s calibrator.” Yikes. Easy there on the juice champ.

There is no doubt that in a sport where being bigger and stronger gives you an advantage, steroids would seem the logical answer. Especially in the UFC, where it’s the best of the best, steroid usage is not a case of “if” but “how many”. Still, MMA is not the only sport where steroid use is being questioned – Barry Bonds anyone?

For those of you who think that steroids may logically be the answer, the spark to a career spent in the spotlight against top notch fighters, please consider that former NFL wide receiver Johnnie Morton tested positive for the steroid epitestosterone after his MMA match on June 2 against Bernard Ackah and that guy got his ass knocked OUT in just 38 seconds. Roids do not the fighter make.

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