Steriods and MMA

[Steve72]

I was watching MTV today and caught an episode of True Life which was focused on people who abuse steriods.

One of the stories was on some guy named "Roger" from Sacremento, CA who was training to be a MMA fighter. He said he was taking steriods to help his recovery time from the hours of training he put in each week.

MMA came off really bad, because he was pretty obvious what he was doing, and he had very severe side effects (back acne and 'roid rage' in particular). But no one seemed to notice or care about his steriod abuse. I'm pretty sure none of the smaller shows do any sort of drug testing, but am I correct in assuming that UFC tests for performance enhancing drugs? I have heard different stories about Pride testing, some say they do, some say they don't (though a segment on the Rampage: Unchained DVD, he tells a story about Pride piss tests).

Unlike a sport like boxing, where steriod abuse wouldn't really effect performance aside from increasing stamina, steriod abuse seems like it would pretty helpful in MMA, and particularly UFC, where using your size to control your opponent is a popular strategy. Steroids, along with drastic weight cutting through dehydration, seem like they have the potentional to really destroy American MMA if left unchecked.

I had to take care of some business, so I didn't get to see the conclusion, including his first professional fight (which according to Sherdog he won via TKO), but nonetheless, I think it was a pretty interesting look at steroids in the world of MMA.

On a side note, it was pretty funny to see this steriod abuser wearing all his "TAPOUT" gear. Every shirt he had was a Tapout shirt, and I think Tapout comes across very poorly. But I guess as the old saying goes "All publicity is good publicity."

[Justin Crast]

Steroid abuse is pretty obvious in the MMA world. UFC only tests main events and championship fights, since those are the NSAC rules. It was no coincidence that Arlovski suddenly came in about 10 pounds slimmer once he got a title shot.

Pride has no set rules as far as I've ever heard. It seemed pretty obvious that a lot of the guys there were using performance enhancers, probably steroids, although lately some of the fighters are coming in a lot slimmer, most notably Silva and Cro Cop. Maybe Pride started testing.

I've read several articles about steroid abuse in boxing. A couple months ago, I saw an article that strongly implied that Holyfield had been abusing for most of his career.

Justin

[no1 jobber]

I heard with Pride that they do the WWE style of steroid testing, as soon as people start talking about Steroids...they have a steroid test on select individuals, just to show that they are "concerned". Otherwise...yea they can probbaly care less.

[Steve72]

Steroid abuse is pretty obvious in the MMA world. UFC only tests main events and championship fights, since those are the NSAC rules. It was no coincidence that Arlovski suddenly came in about 10 pounds slimmer once he got a title shot.

Pride has no set rules as far as I've ever heard. It seemed pretty obvious that a lot of the guys there were using performance enhancers, probably steroids, although lately some of the fighters are coming in a lot slimmer, most notably Silva and Cro Cop. Maybe Pride started testing.

I've read several articles about steroid abuse in boxing. A couple months ago, I saw an article that strongly implied that Holyfield had been abusing for most of his career.

Justin


I have not heard about Evander Holyfield abusing steroids, but I wouldn't doubt it. Funny thing about Holyfield is that still has all his mental faculties despite years of getting beat up in the ring. He's in a lot better shape mentally, I think, then most boxers from his era.

I have also heard that Vitali Klitschko was possibly involved with steroids, and in fact they may have contributed to the injuries that ended his career :o

[SoCal Tom Walters]

I have not heard about Evander Holyfield abusing steroids, but I wouldn't doubt it. Funny thing about Holyfield is that still has all his mental faculties despite years of getting beat up in the ring. He's in a lot better shape mentally, I think, then most boxers from his era.

I have also heard that Vitali Klitschko was possibly involved with steroids, and in fact they may have contributed to the injuries that ended his career :o

I have heard that too in regards to Vitali. Most of the fighters raised in the old "Soviet Machine" era were force fed roids. A fighter like Vitali is the only kind of dude that would benefit from roid use since he was a poor athlete coordination wise and just relied on a simple right hand power punch.

[The Loose Cannon]

Wasn't James Toney being touted as like the savior of the craptacular Heavyweight division before he tested postive for steriods and was stripped of his title? Heavyweight boxing has gone from poor to absolute joke now, boxing as a whole is going through a dark age of sorts, but there still are some great fights every now and then in the featherweight and middleweight divisions, I believe. Keep an eye out for Morales Vs. Pacquiao II, should be a great fight.

As for roids and MMA, I always figured it was pretty obvious that a lot of MMA fighters took steriods, but I figured not too many abused them. UFC has some sort of semblence regarding sterioid abuse, as noted above about their testing. Pride, on the other hand, is a mixed bag, with no clear public stance on steroids. I would say a lot more Pride guys are juicing than UFC guys, and who knows how many independent MMA organizations are full of roids.

[SoCal Tom Walters]

Wasn't James Toney being touted as like the savior of the craptacular Heavyweight division before he tested postive for steriods and was stripped of his title? Heavyweight boxing has gone from poor to absolute joke now, boxing as a whole is going through a dark age of sorts, but there still are some great fights every now and then in the featherweight and middleweight divisions, I believe. Keep an eye out for Morales Vs. Pacquiao II, should be a great fight.

As for roids and MMA, I always figured it was pretty obvious that a lot of MMA fighters took steriods, but I figured not too many abused them. UFC has some sort of semblence regarding sterioid abuse, as noted above about their testing. Pride, on the other hand, is a mixed bag, with no clear public stance on steroids. I would say a lot more Pride guys are juicing than UFC guys, and who knows how many independent MMA organizations are full of roids.

James Toney will unify the heavyweight titles this year. And his "roids" was like Nandrolene or whatever to repair his torn bicep. LOL@keep an eye out for Morales-Pacquiao like that's some underground under the radar fight. I laugh at all you idiots' "boxing is in the dark ages" comments when in the first 6 months of this year I'll enjoy Morales-Pacquiao, Corrales-Castillo, Lacy-Calzaghe, Judah-Mayweather, and Toney-Rahman, LOL.

[The Loose Cannon]

Alright then, you go ahead and keep up your boxing crusade. Meanwhile, barely anyone cares about boxing anymore. And Morales Vs. Pacquiao isn't a high-profile boxing match-up, compared to say if Tyson, Holyfield, Lewis, De la Hoya, or Jones Jr. were to fight. Morales Vs. Pacquiao will be a huge fight in the Latino and Filipino market, no doubt about that, but I'm betting you there are a lot of American and European boxing fans that could care less about the fight. And all those American and European fans easily make up half of the boxing fan base. Sorry, Morales Vs. Pacquiao II won't transcend all boxing boundries and draw in millions of boxing fans all over the world in the way that a De La Hoya or Roy Jones Jr. fight could. But by no means would it be a failure in terms of drawing viewers and ticketholders, I'm sure it will do just fine. I'm hoping it turns out to be a good fight, and that HBO replays it, seeing as Boxing PPVs usually carry a ludicrous price tag.

Same goes for Corrales Vs. Castillo, but that will probably draw less; Lacy Vs. Calzaghe will be interesting, but not many boxing fans are interested in a couple of white guys boxing eachother outside of Europe; Zudah just lost about a week or so ago so.... yeah, he doesn't even deserve a shot at Mayweather, and he may not even get it now; and Toney Vs. Rahman will just consist of Toney knocking Rahman the fuck out, that or it'll be a snore-fest that goes to the judges, yay? Also, talks about a Jones Jr. Vs. Hopkins fight have fallen through, while yeah it's two washed up guys fighting eachother, it would be a great draw for boxing: Jones Jr. trying to regain any semblance to his tailspinning career, and it would be Hopkin's swan song after a Hall of Fame career.

[Steve72]

Jeff Lacy's black :o ARGUMENT DESTROYED

[The Loose Cannon]

Whoopsies, sorry bout that, I confused Lacy with Froch, my bad.

[The Loose Cannon]

And no, one small mistake doesn't destroy my arguement, read the rest of my post, jackass.

[SoCal Tom Walters]

Alright then, you go ahead and keep up your boxing crusade. Meanwhile, barely anyone cares about boxing anymore. And Morales Vs. Pacquiao isn't a high-profile boxing match-up, compared to say if Tyson, Holyfield, Lewis, De la Hoya, or Jones Jr. were to fight. Morales Vs. Pacquiao will be a huge fight in the Latino and Filipino market, no doubt about that, but I'm betting you there are a lot of American and European boxing fans that could care less about the fight. And all those American and European fans easily make up half of the boxing fan base. Sorry, Morales Vs. Pacquiao II won't transcend all boxing boundries and draw in millions of boxing fans all over the world in the way that a De La Hoya or Roy Jones Jr. fight could. But by no means would it be a failure in terms of drawing viewers and ticketholders, I'm sure it will do just fine. I'm hoping it turns out to be a good fight, and that HBO replays it, seeing as Boxing PPVs usually carry a ludicrous price tag.

Same goes for Corrales Vs. Castillo, but that will probably draw less; Lacy Vs. Calzaghe will be interesting, but not many boxing fans are interested in a couple of white guys boxing eachother outside of Europe; Zudah just lost about a week or so ago so.... yeah, he doesn't even deserve a shot at Mayweather, and he may not even get it now; and Toney Vs. Rahman will just consist of Toney knocking Rahman the fuck out, that or it'll be a snore-fest that goes to the judges, yay? Also, talks about a Jones Jr. Vs. Hopkins fight have fallen through, while yeah it's two washed up guys fighting eachother, it would be a great draw for boxing: Jones Jr. trying to regain any semblance to his tailspinning career, and it would be Hopkin's swan song after a Hall of Fame career.

You must of missed the memo that Jones/Hopkins are a combined 0-5 and nobody would buy that PPV. Morales-Pacquiao would easily outdraw that numbers wise. The Holyfield/Tyson/Jones/DLH era is OVER. The rest of the boxing public has moved on, I think you should as well.

Again you underestimate the "Latino" demographic. Next to zero white people watch boxing anymore because they are racist and only care when a "white athlete" comes to prominance. I'd say they are like 5% tops of today's boxing fanbase in America. Have even gone to any fights lately? It's like 95% Latino/African-American.

And Castillo-Corrales was one of the biggest sporting events of the last year, it was even on ESPN's "Top 10 Games of the Year" that they aired recently. The 3rd fight will do fantastic ratings on Showtime.

Whether Judah deserves the Mayweather fight or not, it's still one of the biggest matchups that can be made in 2006. Who else will fight Mayweather in the PPV slot, Baldomir? HBO already said they have no interest in that fight and the public doesn't either. Judah vs Mayweather will still be an awesome fight and is a style Mayweather has yet to face.

And Toney-Rahman is the most interesting fight that can be made at heavyweight right now. Both have the skills to KO one another. I don't see how it'd be a "snorefest" when James Toney hasn't been in a boring fight.

[The Loose Cannon]

You mentioned how part of the boxing public has moved on, I agree with that, that is why I mentioned the "old timers" that have all but retired from boxing. As terrible as a fight involving those guys would be, it would still draw heavily, because old boxing fans that have moved on would potentially come back just to see some of their old favorite boxers fight one more time. I like to call that the "Mike Tyson Theory", as terrible as they may be at boxing, a name alone can sell a fight, long after the talent has gone, hence why Tyson kept drawing huge numbers, leading to his laughable title shot against Lewis years ago. Hopkins Vs. Jones will draw, maybe not to boxing purists that have moved on to the young guns and the way more exciting lighter divisions, but you can't doubt that Average Joe Boxing Fan may be intrigued by the fight, and money is money in the boxing industry, they don't care if some "true" boxing fans will shit all over the fight, it will still sell out in Vegas, do well on PPV, and draw good ratings on HBO/Showtime.

Also, I never mentioned "white people", I mentioned "Americans" and "Europeans". If your perception of Americans and Europeans is "nothing but white people", you are seriously wrong, but I'll assume you don't and were simply confused at the moment. I'm not doubting the Latino demographic, in fact it's due to great Latino fighters that Boxing hasn't folded completely in the U.S. Kudos to those guys for what they do for boxing, at least they put on stellar fights while most dipshit promoters have their thumbs up their ass as they think of another terrible Heavyweight fight to promote. I'm sure Pacquioa Vs. Morales II and Castillo Vs. Corrales III will do just fine, my original point was just that I thought it was funny how it seemed like you were defending boxing because it is just as popular as it was in the 90's, and I find that statement ridiculous. I'm not a complete Boxing hater, rather I'm an old boxing fan that's frustrated at how shitty it's being run and promoted as of late, steroids aside. A boxing renaissance similar to the one in the 90's would intrigue me, but I think it's not up to the Heavyweights to cause it, their time has come and gone, I think boxing's future lies with the smaller, more exciting guys.

Oh yeah, Castillo Vs. Corrales II, Pacquioa Vs. Marquez, and Ward Vs. Gatti I & II have been my favorite fights over the past couple of years. Here's hoping some more great fights happen in 2006, but right now only Pacquioa Vs. Morales II and Castillo Vs. Corrales III intrigue me, I'm all for more MMA besides those two fights.

[SoCal Tom Walters]

Boxing is in a renaissance, you just have to look harder ;)

The 2000's has already blew away the 90's as far as fight quality, IMO. The last few years the best have been willing to fight the best which never happened last decade. I think you should have been watching the fights the last 5 years instead of wishing on a star for who knows what to come back. The only good shit in the 90's was Chavez. None of the top HW's of that decade even fought in their primes. All the "old time" fans still love boxing such as Larry Merchant. It's just the "catch a PPV every 2 years" fans that don't care anymore which is not really much of a loss :)

EDIT: Prince Naseem doesn't fight anymore either and Bruce Willis is a ghost.

[The Loose Cannon]

Bah, perhaps I'm writing too much, but I'll say it again: I don't care about the guys pushing 40 that are washed up, my point was that promoters are still pursuing those guys so they can whore them out for one last "Superfight", something that will be dreadful to watch, but would draw money due to the names involved. And holy crap, nice use of nostalgia there with Prince Naseem. I remember when he was getting hyped like no one else in the 90's.... and away he went.

Plus, Bruce Willis can't be a ghost, he's unbreakable!

[The Loose Cannon]

Oh yeah, Taylor Vs. Wright will be great as well, as long as it actually happens. Here's hoping Wright gets an impressive win, he deserves all of the Middleweight spotlight by now, he's just too damn good not to.

[SoCal Tom Walters]

According to a Winky interview, Taylor and Lou DiBella want no part of him and already turned down the fight.

[The Loose Cannon]

According to a Winky interview, Taylor and Lou DiBella want no part of him and already turned down the fight.

:(