USADA Chief Official Criticizes Drug Testing Policies in MMA
by Mike Fagan on May 11, 2011 3:00 PM EDT
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Ask UFC President Dana White about steroids and PEDs, and he is quick to repeat the refrain about MMA being the only sport drug tested by the government. The argument is typical promoterspeak, an attempt to convince fans that MMA is clean while also absolving Zuffa from taking a more proactive stance.
Tyler Tygart, chief of the United States Anti-Doping Agency, is calling out the sport's inadequate testing. The Montreal Gazette reports:
"They want, for public relation and marketing reasons, to say they have something that makes them look better than they truly are," Tygart told Reuters.
"Why don't they have better rules to give athletes and sports fans comfort that there is not a rampant culture of cheating with dangerous drugs going on in their sport?
..."Not only are they not WADA Code compliant they have fought tooth and nail not to have any principles of the WADA Code," said Tygart. "It's a joke that they claim they are trying to protect their sport with WADA policies.
Tygart said not only are the state athlete commissions inadequate, but that lawyers for mixed martial arts argued at a recent Nevada State Athletic Commission hearing against beefing up anti-doping efforts with blood testing.
"Make no mistake, rules that apply to UFC in the states are horrific in comparison to the WADA Code."
I find the hysteria surrounding PEDs tiring, and Tyler Tygart often comes off as a self-serving blowhard, but it's hard to deny that current testing procedures are a joke.
Most commissions require a simple urine test, a test that was recently defeated by use of a urine adulterant in front of a NSAC official. There is little (if any) blood testing done, and out-of-competition testing is not utilized despite being on the books in certain jurisdictions.
This double entendre from Dana White is telling:
"If you get caught using steroids these days you seriously have to be a moron."
While White wants to pass the buck over to the commissions, there have been a handful of instances with the UFC handling their own testing. The company chose not to test anyone at UFC 69 with the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation rules leaving responsibility to the "sanctioning body." At UFC 70 in England, the company again refused to test its athletes despite Dana White's claims otherwise during a conference call prior to the event.
The UFC did test at UFC 89 in Birmingham, England, where Chris Leben tested positive for Stanazolol. It currently conducts its own testing in Britain and Australia, which don't operate under athletic commissions as in the United States and Canada.
That wasn't the case at UFC 129, however, when the UFC had to step in to handle tests after the Ontario commission refused testing of their own.
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a test that was recently defeated by use of a urine adulterant in front of a NSAC official.
I agree that urine tests are all too fallible but to be fair, the test wasn’t so much defeated as failed in a different way. The test showed that the urine was inconsistent with a human sample. Though now all the commission had to go on as to what the illegal substance was, is Silva’s word.
It would be nice for the UFC to have random, blanket, year round, random testing that was independent of commissions. How much can these tests cost that they won’t pay to help dramatically reduce PEDs?
by SmackyBear on May 11, 2011 3:32 PM EDT reply actions 1 recs
Plus...
…regardless of what the substance was, Silva has been punished just as harshly if they’d found HGH or anabolics in his pee. Is it important to find what substance has been used or just to catch fighters trying to cheat in general?
The failure was that the adulterant was able to get into the urine. Especially at the level of the UFC, they should be watching you pee in the cup, there should be no way to get anything but your urine into the cup.
Am I the only one who finds it interesting that he chose to use fake urine instead of asking a team mate at ATT to give him a clean sample?
Bigfoot, Monson, Alves… somebody.
"Someone is WRONG on the internet. What do you want me to do? LEAVE? Then they'll keep being wrong!"
-Randall Munroe
by pdl on May 11, 2011 7:47 PM EDT up reply actions 3 recs
personally, i don’t care either way. i’m tired of hearing about streroids in sports. i don’t care, i just want to be entertained. can we stop pretending that athletes are supposed to be role models and should be held to some lofty standard? in this particular case, we are talking about men that are fighting other men, inside of a cage, for our entertainment. why do people keep thinking these guys should act like ghandi? if you want to take steroids so you can hit a baseball a little farther, go for it, because the guy pitching the baseball is probably taking them too. charlie sheen is a well known cocaine afficianado. cocaine is illegal, but people still love the guy. i’m in no position to judge what anybody else does with their body. are you?
charlie sheen is a well known cocaine afficianado. cocaine is illegal, but people still love the guy.
Nobody loves Charlie Sheen.
why do people keep thinking these guys should act like ghandi?
Gandhi.
yes, people do love charlie sheen. you can’t turn on the TV without seeing that crappy show on ten different stations.
as for the “gandhi” spelling, i went with your spelling first, but it didn’t look right so i changed it. it felt right, but just didn’t pass the eyeball test.
dude this is one on one combat, not baseball. cheating should not be tolerated, someone could be killed. Good luck growing the sport if that happens
this is two trained, professional fighters in a cage, punching, kicking, elbowing, kneeing, choking and attempting to break bones. but now you’re trying to tell me that the sport could be dangerous is one of the fighters is taking steroids?
hmmm…..
Yeah
Thats exactly what I’m saying. You have a dangerous sport to begin with, by adding physically and mentally altering drugs to the equation, yes it becomes more dangerous. I don’t see why thats hard to understand. In baseball, somebody loses it on any kind of drug, they may charge the mound, break a bat or beat up a cooler. You lose it while performing a rear naked choke, knee bar, in the clinch etc etc., someone can really get hurt. If thats stupid or funny to you, you must be 12.
by warren305 on May 11, 2011 5:28 PM EDT up reply actions 1 recs
You're just the worst kind of fan.
Kids in Africa don’t give a fuck about me, does that mean I shouldn’t help send them mosquito nets to prevent malaria?
https://secure.unicefusa.org/site/Ecommerce/1665209178?VIEW_PRODUCT=true&product_id=2308&store_id=4221&gclid=CLOrpseL4agCFagZQgodN14kDQ
Just because you don’t know any fighters personally doesn’t mean they aren’t great, hard working people providing for their families. But again, you probably don’t care about safety precautions for factory workers because they don’t know who you are. And if they aren’t aware of ‘tha dude’ then they are clearly not worth the time.
"Someone is WRONG on the internet. What do you want me to do? LEAVE? Then they'll keep being wrong!"
-Randall Munroe
by pdl on May 11, 2011 7:54 PM EDT up reply actions 1 recs
lol
That old gag. “people will be killed by steroid users!”
That’s right up there with " my kung fu is too dangerous for the ring or I would be champ." In the stupidest arguements/ statements ever recited reguarding mma.
"Many have the will to win. Few have to will to prepare to win."
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by the-gentle-way on May 11, 2011 4:40 PM EDT via mobile up reply actions
Have you ever taken testosterone or any kind of steroid before?
If you don’t think it makes a difference, I highly doubt you have.
by warren305 on May 11, 2011 5:29 PM EDT up reply actions 1 recs
what difference do you think it makes?
If you use steroids to cut weight like Leben did, I fail to see how it may change any of the fights parameters.
If you use steroids to gain strength and mass well, first you can only gain so much in a sport with weight classes, second MMA is very technique-dependent, adding 150lbs on your squat and deadlift wont win you the fight, and third the fighter is off-cycle for weeks/months at the time of the fight thus not benefitting from the added aggression associated with AS use.
If you use steroids to cut weight like Leben did, I fail to see how it may change any of the fights parameters.
This is not so. AAS products that are used for “cutting” in the bodybuilding sense of the word (losing BF while maintaining or slightly gaining lean mass) are of no use for “weight cutting” in a combat sports sense of the phrase (rapid dehydration/rehydration cycle).
Leben used Winstrol, which like Halo or Anavar (both of which often actually are Winstrol instead when bought UG) is used in the cutting phase of a bodybuilding cycle because it is a strength and hardness gainer rather than a mass builder (and essentially no additional water is retained with it’s use), but it is of zero benefit in “weight cutting” as we use the term.
"Life is tough, but it's tougher if you're stupid." -John Wayne
Death before dishonor, drinks before lunch.
by The American Ronin on May 12, 2011 12:36 PM EDT up reply actions
Not sure why personal use makes anyone more or less qualified to comment. Also, the sport has been rife with PED use throughout its history without a single serious injury/death that can be attributed to it. See also: professional football.
Twitter: @Mike_Fagan_13
Not implying that someone without personal experience can't comment
I am stating that if you only know of steroids from Sportscenter or any other off hand source, you may not be fully aware of the effects they can have on a person. If you are not fully aware, then you dont really know what you are talking about, which is my point. Steroids change personality, confidence, aggression levels, mental clarity, emotional stability, let alone making your muscles physically stronger and more durable. I honestly don’t care much if someone uses them in baseball, other than the fact that they skew the records (which are a big deal in a sport of attrition). But in sports like MMA or football, all of those physical and mental factors I stated before can not only change your life, but your opponents as well. Minimizing them does, in fact, show some level of ignorance on the issue. Which is what I was addressing. No disrespect intended.
Let's examine the difference then, shall we?
Here’s a list of every steroid bust in MMA:
http://www.cagepotato.com/mma-steroid-busts-definitive-timeline/
Of the all the fighters who were caught using after fights (ie, those who were definitely on steroids during the fight) 12 won, while 21 lost.
Statistically, you are almost twice as likely to lose an MMA fight while on PEDs.
First of all...
33 cases means jack all in terms of statistical relevance. I’m not sure if you knew that or not, but you must know the second of all…
…..which is that you are laughably ignorant if you think that number is a true representation of the number of competitors using PEDs.
You sound exactly like all the idiots who said
“Well, steroids aren’t going to help you hit a baseball.”
By this point in time it should be crystal clear: Steroids are fantastic in aiding recovery from intense exercise. Whatever the sport you are training for, using steroids will enhance your abilities to perform that sport.
So while it is not as simple as take steroids, become a better fighter, it is a simple as take steroids, work out harder and longer, become a better fighter.
I can’t believe this isn’t obvious to everyone by now.
by Luke Nelson on May 11, 2011 6:27 PM EDT up reply actions 1 recs
You replied correctly
You’d have to reply to who gentle was replying to to appear direct under him.
Conducting an experiment on knocking people out in particular ways would be unethical.
No prob
wasn’t sure if you were serious or just being a smartass to tha dude lol. Glad I could help
Conducting an experiment on knocking people out in particular ways would be unethical.
Because it is cheating. If it were allowed, I would not have nearly the issue with it.
"Life is tough, but it's tougher if you're stupid." -John Wayne
Death before dishonor, drinks before lunch.
by The American Ronin on May 11, 2011 9:24 PM EDT up reply actions
Can we get a poll to see who how many people who enjoy watching MMA actually care about steroid use?
where can i vote?
i don’t care about it in any sport, including horse racing.
I care
More so in MMA than any other sport. This is supposed to be the truest form of competition. Two guys, in a cage, best man wins. No ball, no in zone, no goal, just two guys and their fighting skills. I want to know who’s best, not who can hire the best scientist. My question is, why don’t you care?
by warren305 on May 11, 2011 3:44 PM EDT up reply actions 1 recs
the reason i don’t care is because it’s entertainment. it’s two grown men fighting in a cage for our entertainment. i don’t care if one of them can benchpress 5 lbs. more than the other, or can run a mile 10 seconds faster than the other one. there is this huge misconception that steroids will give you superhuman strength. it’s not true. i’m not condoning steroid use, i simply don’t care about it. i also don’t care if someone drinks themself to death, smokes, or eats junkfood until they weigh 500 lbs. it’s your body, do what you want with it. if you choose to be an athlete, be aware that there are other guys who may be juicing, but you know that going it. my question to you is: why do you care? is your life and the world in general so perfect that you have nothing better to complain about than the training rituals of complete strangers? wouldn’t your time be better spent complaining about education, the economy, the war on terrorism, health care, etc rather than complaining about two men in a cage punching each other in the face?
As someone training to be a fighter you are damn straight I want to know if the dude I’m gettin ready to fight is juicing. Steroids give someone an advantage that could help them win. Not saying they will but it could be the diffference if its a close fight. I don’t understand the stance of someone who doesnt understand the outcry about juicers in a growing sport that they love if you want to see the sport hit it’s highest level then you should start caring.
"This mother Fucker next to me is wearing foot warmers? Its like 60 degrees out here." Joe Rogan
by Bobillarious on May 11, 2011 6:00 PM EDT via mobile up reply actions
most experts are scientists
First, MMA is not only determined by “fighting skils”.
The best fighter is a combination of several key components.
Second, is a MD a scientist? What about a PhD?
An expert in nutrition and supplementation can provide a fighter with a superior advantage. Expert N&S is as good or better than drugs in most cases. However, these experts are few and far between.
Also, an expert in strength and conditioning can provide the same advantage.
Most elite fighters make use of doctor and other therapists, nutritionists, and of course strength and conditioning coaches.
At the elite level of MMA alll of those experts/scientists offer great advantages for a fighter.
And all of those advantages go well beyond “fighting skills”.
I agree with that, but a line has to be drawn somewhere with supplements. I could not tell you where exactly to draw that line, but it has to be drawn.
This is not a perfect analogy, but as science moves forward we will have people with copletely robotic (lack of a better word) limbs most would agree they cannot compete, but where is the line being some guys have metal rods in their bodies from broken bones…
Thats true
But pushing someone to their natural limits, and pushing someone past their natural human limits are two separate things. If you are someone like Chael claims he is, that just naturally was/is not physically capable of competing athletically, then tough luck. Natural is natural, and anything superseding that capability is creating an unfair playing field and is cheating.
I care about PED usage.
It’s a common concept that “Yo, PEDs just make you better at shit!”. If that was the case, I wouldn’t be quite so worried. Unfortunately, pretty much every major PED involves side effects that range from pretty minor (testicles slightly smaller) to rather dangerous (heart problems, aneurysms, etc.) — side effects which vary wildly from person to person.
Not to mention that already the level of competition is so high that any tiny advantage you have over your opponent is considered worth the risk. Combine that with the fact that these people are putting themselves through a lot of physical strain every day. That makes for a potential powderkeg scenario. This shit needs to be regulated.
by Pyrgz Krum on May 11, 2011 3:47 PM EDT up reply actions 1 recs
educated steroid users keep functionnal and full-size testicles all year around, and the health conditions you describe are associated with steroid abuse, and again not educated usage.
what then? GH?
doesnt affect your testicles and for the other sides you mention, [citation required].
The oral steroids are particularly dangerous, even when used somewhat moderately (by steroid standards), but the side effects of some of the others, properly used and monitored, are very minimal.
"Life is tough, but it's tougher if you're stupid." -John Wayne
Death before dishonor, drinks before lunch.
by The American Ronin on May 12, 2011 12:38 PM EDT up reply actions
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ussCHoQttyQ
http://unintelligentdefense.blogspot.com
WAR BLOOD TESTS!
Blood Testing and random tests during training camps are the only way to go… Why all Combat Athletes aren’t forced to undergo these tests, I will never know…
by Aggressor666 on May 11, 2011 3:45 PM EDT reply actions 1 recs
“It’s expensive and time consuming” is the usual excuse, though it’s not valid in the case of the UFC which has a lot of money.
that being said
seriously, how expensive and time consuming can it actually be, these guys train proffessionally, they can’t take an hour out of their day to test, and I can’t believe cost is truly an issue
giving them an hour out of the day to do it makes the test inaccurate. People can beat the test if they know about it with any advance warning. The only way for truly random testing to be effective is the way WADA does it, you tell them where you are all the time and they show up and say “pee in this cup, now” and don’t let you out of their sight until the cup is full. That infrastructure is very expensive and time consuming, especially for the UFC and their hundreds of fighters all over the planet.
I think you might have read more
into my comment then I intended. I should have put, if people from a testing agency show up at random, an hour out of a fighters day to do a piss test and blood work isn’t going to ruin their career or day for that matter, and I still don’t see how testing can be that expensive, that being said, I’ve never seen any numbers involved in testing so I have no idea how much it actually costs.
you don’t see how getting people from a testing agency to show up at wherever the fighter is on the planet is expensive?
for the most part
we’re talking about people who are within the continental U.S., with the exception of a handful fighters outside said area. With that in mind, alot of these fighters are in areas, or states for that matter that have facilities available for testing, yes travel is going to be an expense, but we’re not talking about amounts that are going to bankrupt companies here. As for those outside the U.S., obviously the cost goes up, but again, we aren’t talking huge sums of money, especially considering companies like Zuffa that are worth what over a billion dollars now.
you’re just wrong on this one. It’s going to be very expensive to get people with the proper credentials to get from their house or office to the home or gym of the fighter you are looking for, even in the US, and moreso for the many more than a handful of fighters that don’t live in the US. That doesn’t even get into the costs of gettign the urine or blood back to the lab and then testing it.
True...
and realistically, name one sport organization on an international level that can’t afford the testing. If you can’t afford the tests, you don’t operate a fed. Simple as that.
by Aggressor666 on May 11, 2011 3:49 PM EDT up reply actions
because almost no sport is
i totally agree with you and support this approach.
but no other sport is quite like that.
i was “randomly” urine tested out of season in my sport.
but only a few are and that’s the exception to the norm since the sport was targeted and in a country relatively serious about reducing PED.
To be fair towards White
That Ontario dropped the ball and the UFC did it anyway is a good thing for the UFC. Same with doing it in the UK and elsewhere.
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by Cory Braiterman on May 11, 2011 3:45 PM EDT reply actions
I agree.
Being from Ontario, a province that has put the sport through the ringer in the past; I found it appalling that our commission failed to test the fighters.
Big ups to Zuffa for stepping in, but in reality, how deep was the testing? I’d like to think that it was as deep, if not deeper than that of the NSAC, but let’s be honest… It probably wasn’t.
by Aggressor666 on May 11, 2011 3:48 PM EDT up reply actions
The point I’m making is that it’s disingenuous for the UFC to divert the issues to the commissions since they are performing tests of their own.
Twitter: @Mike_Fagan_13
but that WAS a commission failure
I see what you’re saying, but what’re they supposed to do, not test? That looks even worse, IMO. This way, they come across as the good guy.
http://mixedmartialartsblogger.wordpress.com/
by Cory Braiterman on May 11, 2011 9:48 PM EDT up reply actions
I hope that as time goes on, there is more testing
I mean, you have to think that as successful as the UFC has been and will be, eventually doing year round randomized testing for all athletes will not be a financial woe.
I mean, they made a deal to cover all accidental, training, or combat related injuries of every single one of their fighters…so I imagine something like 10 random drug tests a year across all of their athletes couldn’t be too insane. It’s not like it costs 100 thousand dollars per fighter or something is it?
I’d also like to see the comissions enforce stricter drug testing before and after the events. The random tests during the year should be the UFC’s, keeping their own guys in line, but as far as day of testing, the comissions need to take a step up there.
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by MattParker117 on May 11, 2011 3:56 PM EDT up reply actions
I think in light
of recent allegations about Chael using ‘roids since 2008 that drug testing should be deffinetly be implemented. If true that Chael has been jucing for that long, it sure brings into question the fact he has done so well. I’m sure that there are many fighters in a similar situation as Sonnen as well.
The plural of anecdote is not data, but...
…take this for what it’s worth. I was watching a fight at a friend’s place. He is study Sports Physiotherapy or something like that. One of his classmates went to high school with a very well-known and still active Washington-based fighter (not Josh Barnett) who fought several times in the UFC.
According to this guy, his UFC fighter buddy told him that maybe 90% of fighters use steroids or whatever substances that are banned under most athletic commission rules. They take them orally (I guess because they’re absorbed faster) to recover quicker from injuries during training. I don’t know this guy very well and he is a huge MMA fan, so it’s not like he was attempting to shit all over the sport. He was more stating what he believed is the reality of the sport to his girlfriend.
Oddly enough, I believe this conversation happened during the Silva-Vera fight. Go figure. I must admit, it made me a little sad, especially since I have a ton of admiration for the guy he was talking about.
Josh Barnett said something similar in an interview – that he’s “no rat” but that it definitely goes on in the locker rooms. But then, he WOULD know wouldn’t he?
If they’re as prevalent as claimed, it would make sense as to why the UFC in particularly uses such softball tests. My $0.02.
not sure about the 90%
but of course, a lot of fighter use them. In case of injury theres simply too much at stake for the fighter not to use steroids if he has a very good chance to get away with it, which is the case right now.
Afaik oral steroids are not absorbed faster, considering the alternative is intramuscular injections. its just a convenience thing.
Another part of this that is under the radar:
The rash of injuries that are going on right now is pretty harsh. It seems to me that there is a lot of over-use injuries as well. And you could easily imagine that the over-use is connected to PEDs.
I mean, Barry Bonds’ body practically imploded on him after a few years of spectacular achievements. I don’t wonder if we are just starting to scratch the surface of this unfortunate consequence of PED use over here in MMA.
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by RolloTomasi on May 11, 2011 7:18 PM EDT reply actions 1 recs
It’s a confusing mess. Promoters and owners only care about steroids as it effects their bottom line. The sad reality is that the negative effects from steroids don’t pop up until years after they are done with the athletes, so they only see/saw the positives of the steroids in the better on field product.
The other sports didn’t start testing because they cared, they started testing to keep the government out. Zuffa doesn’t have to worry about that because the government is already in. They already have to deal with the government to regulate the rest of the sport, so they can easily push the burden on to the government, especially when the government does their own testing. When Zuffa tests on their own, they can say they do it to maintain the status quo that is set up by the government and that it wouldn’t be fair to people fighting in a non-commission area or a commission that doesn’t test. They aren’t going to change unless they are pressured to, and it’s going to be a lot harder to pressure them than it was to pressure the other sports because the trump card of “the government” has already been thrown.
As for WADA, I agree that they often come off as self-serving blowhards, and any drug testing program in the world that doesn’t go through them is a joke, and they don’t offer their services for free, so you can definitely question their motives. That said, they do have the infrastructure set up to test people all over the world, and that is really one of the biggest obstacles when it comes to drug testing, especially for a global organization for the UFC.
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