Toggle sidebar

USADA - Good For The UFC?

BGDDYKWL

BGDDYKWL

Registered User
Jul 16, 2007
4,476
421
I'm admittedly biased when it comes to this but I was curious to get people's thoughts. Personally I'd like to see PEDs allowed, but regulated. I'm pretty sure I'm in the minority on that, but let's take a look at what's transpired recently.

Jones - Likely suspended two years. He's young enough to continue, but we're losing two prime years from the arguable GOAT.

Lesnar - Almost certainly ends his career.

Mendes - For all intents and purposes it ends his career.

Chael, Wanderlei, Mir - Ended their careers.

Vitor's a shell of his former self, Hendo's not the same, Reem's lost 30 pounds of muscle, guys seem to be getting injured more than ever...

Obviously a legitimate sport can't allow cheating, but from a fan's perspective everything mentioned above is very bad. I don't think it's arguable that having all these guys around would make for a more entertaining product, but would people rather see the old testing that was easy for guys to get around, PEDs allowed but regulated, or a clean sport where guys aren't as big, strong, athletic, explosive, more injury prone, and also run the risk of losing some of our favorite fighters potentially for years of their careers?
Click to read more...
 

Sideline

Registered User
May 23, 2004
11,111
2,831
I don't care about PEDs in non contact sports like baseball or cycling, but part of contact sports is injuring your opponents. I have a hard time with risky drugs that make it easier to hurt someone else. That forces the hand of guys that want to live clean.
 
LSCII

LSCII

Cup driven
Mar 1, 2002
50,514
22,022
Central MA
In the short term, more and more fighters are going to get popped because the sport is inherently dirty at this time. So in the now, USADA testing will hurt the UFC, but in the long run it will help it immensely just from a safety standpoint alone.
 
irunthepeg

irunthepeg

Board man gets paid
May 20, 2010
35,289
3,209
The Peg, Canada
Is Jones the arguable GOAT if we can't be certain he hasn't been using the entire time he's been fighting? That's the problem with PEDs. It rightfully tarnishes an entire legacy because we're not going to take the user's word for it once they get caught. Even Anderson Silva, who I used to consider the GOAT fighter... who says he wasn't using his whole career?

Sucks about Lesnar. It was cool to cheer for him and his comeback after that injury.
 
m9

m9

m9
Sponsor
Jan 23, 2010
25,107
15,229
BGDDYKWL said:
I'm admittedly biased when it comes to this but I was curious to get people's thoughts. Personally I'd like to see PEDs allowed, but regulated. I'm pretty sure I'm in the minority on that, but let's take a look at what's transpired recently.

Jones - Likely suspended two years. He's young enough to continue, but we're losing two prime years from the arguable GOAT.

Lesnar - Almost certainly ends his career.

Mendes - For all intents and purposes it ends his career.

Chael, Wanderlei, Mir - Ended their careers.

Vitor's a shell of his former self, Hendo's not the same, Reem's lost 30 pounds of muscle, guys seem to be getting injured more than ever...

Obviously a legitimate sport can't allow cheating, but from a fan's perspective everything mentioned above is very bad. I don't think it's arguable that having all these guys around would make for a more entertaining product, but would people rather see the old testing that was easy for guys to get around, PEDs allowed but regulated, or a clean sport where guys aren't as big, strong, athletic, explosive, more injury prone, and also run the risk of losing some of our favorite fighters potentially for years of their careers?
Click to expand...

I've always been of the belief that certain things like steroids, TRT, and HGH if administered properly by licensed physicians can be a good thing to athletes. I don't really understand why things that help an athlete recover are a bad thing. Things that help athletes recover quicker or fight longer should be a good thing as long as there aren't any massive bad side effects.

Mark Cuban has some interesting thoughts on the issue, and I read that he's funded a study to test the results of HGH on recovery because nobody really knows if it does anything bad yet. If something hasn't been proven bad, why is it banned?

There are plenty of things that have proven harmful to the human body that aid in sports. I am fine with banning those. But suspending/testing guys for things that either don't aid performance (weed, coke) or things that haven't been proven to have side effects is going too far.
 
tmurfin

tmurfin

That’s the joke
May 8, 2010
11,243
1,280
No PEDs in combat sports. Not talking about home runs or being able to run faster, we're talking about breaking bones and knocking people unconscious. Sure it hurts in the short term, but it's to be expected, growing pains. The new rules are harsh, but exactly how they should be. No man is above the sport, no man is above the rules.
 
Wood Stick

Wood Stick

Registered User
Dec 25, 2015
1,788
6
tmurfin said:
No PEDs in combat sports. Not talking about home runs or being able to run faster, we're talking about breaking bones and knocking people unconscious. Sure it hurts in the short term, but it's to be expected, growing pains. The new rules are harsh, but exactly how they should be. No man is above the sport, no man is above the rules.
Click to expand...

This. Someone dies from a strike, the striker is on gear, high test levels, is the promotion and the striker liable fianancialy and criminally?

Steroids have no place in this sport. It's too dangerous.
 

jw2

Registered User
Jun 13, 2012
7,081
430
Boston
tmurfin said:
No PEDs in combat sports. Not talking about home runs or being able to run faster, we're talking about breaking bones and knocking people unconscious. Sure it hurts in the short term, but it's to be expected, growing pains. The new rules are harsh, but exactly how they should be. No man is above the sport, no man is above the rules.
Click to expand...

This.

Great for the sport.

Not for UFC, currently
 
Rocko604

Rocko604

Sports will break your heart.
Apr 29, 2009
8,562
273
Vancouver, BC
Yes, it's good for the UFC. People talk about legitimacy with regards to the UFC. Well, as far as I can see, they're the only professional sports organization in North America using the USADA right now. There is going to be some growing pains at first, and I'm sure they were well aware of that, and even prepared for it. But I'd say as early as next year we'll see far fewer fighters testing positive.
 
Avs_19

Avs_19

Registered User
Jun 28, 2007
84,830
32,890
I don't like some of the things they're doing (IV ban for example) but overall it's good for the sport. It's now more clear than ever there was a lot of shady stuff going on behind the scenes. I'd hear GSP and some others talk about the high percentage of fighters using PEDs and think maybe they're exaggerating a bit but they might have been pretty accurate with those claims.

Lorenzo was definitely onto to something when he said it's going to get worse before it gets better. We're seeing that now.
 
Kitten Mittons

Kitten Mittons

Registered User
Nov 18, 2007
48,903
80
It will create a better breed of fighters who are much more skilled and technical. Less violent knockouts, sure, but a much prettier sport to watch.
 
V13

V13

Fire Sell Tank
Sep 21, 2005
13,931
1,842
M1 Habsram
I'm 100% for it. Sucks that it messed up some cards/fights and that some top guys are getting suspended for it but it's their responsibility to clean themselves up and assume their acts.

Cleaning the sport has been long overdue imho

That said it shouldn't go to the extreme. All kind of PEDs and roids i'm fine for long suspensions but suspending a guy like Nick Diaz 5 years for weed now that was extreme and pretty dumb.
 
BogsDiamond

BogsDiamond

Anybody get 2 U yet?
Mar 16, 2008
1,132
79
I'm against PEDs in all sports.
What about the person that doesn't want to shorten their lifespan or put their health on the line in order to gain an advantage?
That person may be on the bubble for making a team, or becoming a pro fighter, but now he or she is in the minors because someone who doesn't care about their future is loading up with juice.

Saying that, I don't have a problem with people taking certain drugs in order to recover from an injury.
If I'm a construction worker and I blow my knee out, a doctor is allowed to prescribe some kind of PEDs so that I can get back on the jobsite sooner than later, so my family isn't going to suffer from a lack of a paycheck.
I don't see why a pro athlete couldn't benefit from that as well.

I'm sure that'll be a nightmare to regulate though. Cheaters will always cheat so you'll see lots of players use medicinal means to use PEDs (see A-Rod in 2007 & 2008).

But if they did find a way to make sure players/fighters only used PEDs as a means to recover from injuries, I'd be good with it.
Otherwise, I want PEDs out of all sports completely.
I'd also like to see the UFC come down harder on cheaters.
I'm guessing if Lesner, or Jones knew that they'd be suspended for 3 years, and have all their purse money revoked for the fight they tested dirty in, they may reconsider.

In MLB, I'd love for them to go even further and force them to give back all their money in the season they tested positive for.

Take money away, and you lose the incentive to cheat.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Ad

Latest posts

Upcoming events

Ad

Ad

Top Bottom