James Toney, Shane Carwin and the Shadow of Steroids Over UFC 118

Given the discussion about Fedor Emelianenko requesting that Alistair Overeem undergo extensive "Olympic style" drug testing before he'd be willing to fight him, I thought I would post some updates on the Shane Carwin situation and also discuss UFC 118 headliner James Toney's checkered past with PEDs.

First up, James Toney. Here's wikipedia on his career low point:

On April 30, 2005, he defeated John Ruiz by a unanimous decision in a 12-round match for the World Boxing Association (WBA) heavyweight Championship. However, as of May 18, 2005, it was [1] reported that Toney failed his post-fight drug test, testing positive for the anabolic steroid stanozolol. This led to the New York Athletic Commission changing the bout's official outcome to a "no-contest", deducting the win from Toney's career record and banning him from boxing for 90 days. The WBA ordered that Ruiz be reinstated as its champion and that Toney be ineligible for another WBA Heavyweight title shot for two years. Toney defended himself by claiming that the steroids were given to him by a doctor to treat an injured arm that occurred during his victory over Rydell Booker in his previous fight. Toney was also subject to a civil lawsuit by Ruiz claiming that Toney's illegal use of steroids gave him an edge in the fight.

The Boxing Insider commented at the time:

Why? Why did this have to happen? Here we had a physically limited heavyweight - he's just about 5-10 with an unheavyweight-like body frame - who basically dominated the well-established John Ruiz with his fighting genius and incomparable mental strength and determination. With his WBA title, Toney was all ready and primed to compete against any man in the world. Toney against any heavyweight out there was going to be guaranteed excitement.

Unfortunately, if this is all true and Toney knowingly used the steroids, the sport has lost one of it's finest performers. And it is a bit sad. Consider: Toney did not use steroids to beat up on a longshot journeyman contender like Richard Hall. This was a three-time champion allegedly using something illegal to, as he says, help speed the recovery of his biceps and triceps injuries.

And now that it's in the open, Toney must face the consequences. The likely 90-day suspension could be lights out on his boxing career at the highest level - he is 36. Unfortunately for Toney, there was no cover-up to hide the truth here.

And here we are five short years later and Toney, a man who was effectively exiled from the top ranks of boxing for failing drug tests is the star of the show at UFC 118.

I have been accused of being "pro-steroids" because I am extremely skeptical that the current testing regime catches anyone but the most incompetent of rules breakers and I also disagree with some of the choices of chemicals to ban. But let me state again, I'm for more testing, stricter punishments for violators and better fighter safety.

Let's talk Shane Carwin in the full entry.

According to Dave Meltzer's Wrestling Observer (subscription required and if you really want to keep up with MMA it's a must) MMA fans shouldn't be shocked that we're welcoming Toney into the sport:

When I met (Shane Carwin) in 2006, he was 289 ripped and when I asked him if he could cut to 265 (the weight he'd need to be for UFC), he laughed and said there was no way he could. Two years later, he was in UFC and fighting at 254 without cutting and physically he looked like a completely different person.

I think almost everyone realizes that when it comes to the upper level of MMA fighters, a lot of them are using PEDs. My feeling from talking with someone who directly distributed is that the people who say everyone or 90% of the top fighters are on them are people covering up for their own insecurities and justifying usage.

That said, the percentage is significant. Dennis Hallman was on Inside MMA a few weeks ago and said it was no less than 50%. When going through fighters at one prominent gym from someone who knew, person by person, we did end up right at 50% and again, some who did and didn't from that list would surprise you.

Everyone who is cut up people think is on, and that's often not the case. Everyone with a soft body people think aren't on, and Tim Sylvia and Josh Barnett have both failed tests multiple times. But the point is, steroids do change the game (one fighter who is very sophisticated on use noted to me about certain opponents that he's trained with both on and off and he mentioned one guy as almost a world beater on when he trained with him and he was `nothing' off, and talked about being genuinely scared of another fighter-keep in mind this was in a non-drug tested environment--who was a very dangerous and actually legendary striker at any weight and had in a very short period of time had suddenly packed on 20 extra pounds of muscle and completely changed his body).

And if you compete at a high level clean, you are in some ways at a competitive disadvantage. In other ways, you're not because a lot of the most mentally tough guys in the sport were not steroid users (and there are obvious exceptions to that rule as well) and in this sport, mental toughness, conditioning and technique are usually more important than strength. Some steroids can help with conditioning and others can hurt, but they don't give you technique and the mood and physical swings from them wreck havoc on some people's mental toughness.

The current testing system means nothing in most states and in the states like Nevada where it is legit, you still know well ahead of time the day you are being tested. They do have the power to test you off season, but it's rarely done, and if you aren't a top guy headlining a show in the next two months, there is no fear of it happening. California was very real before, but when you go from people failing tests nearly every weekend to nobody failing tests for months, either everyone smartened up at once or something has changed. Still, the Carwin story had no media legs at all as even though he's a UFC headliner, UFC is still not covered by the major media pros much, like major league baseball or the NFL.

For his part, Shane Carwin is maintaining his silence as this twitter exchange shows:

wclarke18 @shanecarwin you plan on making a statement about the steroids anytime soon? Dont mean to be a dick just curious/concerned.

Shane Carwin: @wclarke18 no comment will be made.

Roy Nelson, with whom Carwin had a twitter feud last week after Nelson commented on the news, talked to 5th Round about the controversy:

"I don't know. I wasn't even trying to sell a fight. I wasn't even talking about Shane Carwin," Nelson stated. "It was about steroids. I'm actually about trying to clean up our sport and keep integrity in our sport. That's all I'm trying to do."

When asked how his bubbly belly would fare against Carwin's chiseled frame, Nelson appeared confident in his chances if the contest came to fruition.

"Advantages; he has age on me, he definitely has size, a better supplement routine, he hits hard. There are a lot of things he brings to the table that he's better at," Nelson admitted. "I can definitely say I have better [jiu jitsu] than him."

The yawning abyss between reality and perception in these issues just kills me. The handful of fighters who apparently don't know enough about PEDs to beat the tests get relentlessly crucified while the guys who are a little smarter get away clean. This is a classic illustration of the American "just don't get caught" ethic. 

It's time for an open and honest discussion of steroids, HGH and other "performance enhancing drugs" that takes a hard look at what the dangers really are, who is being endangered, and how best to protect the health of MMA fighters. 

Blanket statements like "Drugs are bad, ok?" "He's a roider because he looks like one!" and "He's never tested positive!" don't get us very far. The current system is completely broken. We need a fix.