UFC Getting Destroyed by Positive Anabolic Steroid Testing Ultimate Fighting Championship

Ultimate Fighting Championship is the most electrifying thing to happen to combat sports in years. Helaas, a huge event was marred because of positive steroid tests. This caused media members to attack the organization which prompted the UFC to lash back with unbelievable comments!

It’s absolutely amazing how many combat sports have fallen by the wayside after being crushed by the juggernaut that is mixed martial arts. Boxing has only its glory days to cling to after money hungry ambitions by unscrupulous promoters and scandals have reduced it to a cult sport. Karate and Taekwondo have died down in sequence with the movie genre that is Asian guys kicking lots of bigger guys’ asses. And competitive wrestling with its men rolling around on the ground dressed in spandex... I don’t really need to say anymore.

So in recent years, it has pretty much become clear that mixed martial arts and its banner organization, the UFC, have become the choice to watch among blood-thirsty fight fans. The popular sport features so many different disciplines rolled into one and fighters from around the world that are some of the toughest men on the planet. The clever marketing by the UFC and its president Dana White certainly haven’t hurt the sport either.

But one thing that many media members believe is hurting the sport is the positive steroid tests that many fighters are turning up which has led to the dismantling of some very important bouts.

A recent lightweight title match between Sean Sherk and Hermes Franca in Sacramento, California was thrown out of the books after a post match test determined that not one but both of the fighters were using steroids. Sherk, who won the UFC 73 fight and retained his title through a unanimous decision, tested positive for Nandrolone while Franca tested positive for Drostanolone.

The two received a minimal fine of $2,500 but the heavy end of the punishment came when both were suspended for a year from fighting. This will take a huge toll on both fighters as Hermes Franca best put it, “As a fighter, hoewel, even at this level, I live a simple life and I literally live from fight to fight. Not getting a paycheck for another few months and losing my chance to fight Sean for the title was overpowering.”

Many members of the media have been quick to point out that Franca and Sherk weren’t the only two fighters at UFC 73 who have had steroid-related offenses on their record as Stephen Bonnar and Nate Marquardt were also previously suspended for being caught juicing.

This has led some people to admonish the sport such as Arizona Senator John McCain who labeled mixed martial arts as nothing more than “human cockfighting”. Others have complained the sport is dirty and that steroid usage isn’t being taken seriously enough by the top brass in the UFC which could lead to potentially dangerous problems.

Yahoo Sports reporter Kevin Iole is one who believes this as he wrote, “And while fans may debate the impact of a baseball player using steroids, the simple fact is this: In the fight game, a fighter\'s body is a weapon. And if he is able to artificially enhance that weapon through the use of illegal drugs, he has the potential to seriously harm an opponent. Imagine what will happen to the sport if a fighter later found to be steroid-addled seriously injures, or kills an opponent with a punch.”

Echter, members of the UFC and the rest of the mixed martial arts community are tired of hearing their sport take so much heat for its fighters’ positive tests. UFC president Dana White is definitely one of these people and has had plenty to say on the subject in recent weeks.

He has shifted the attention from the UFC to the NFL saying, “What would happen every Sunday every time an NFL player put his cleats on and headed out to the field they were tested by the government for steroids? You want me to tell you? There would be no football, OK! Football would be over. Every player would be on suspension. Maybe the quarterback and the kicker would be out there on Sunday.”

White defended his lightweight champ Sean Sherk too saying, “I\'ve said this a million times, Sean Sherk is a good guy. I\'ve known him for a long time. I don\'t think he\'s a liar. You could look at him and the guy looks like a bodybuilder. But this is a kid who won\'t walk through the casino because he doesn\'t want to inhale smoke. He tells me he didn\'t take steroids. I believe him. That is not up to me. That\'s up to the California State Athletic Commission."

In reference to an ESPN The Magazine question about how he rates the UFC testing program, he mentioned, “Combat sports, MMA and boxing, really have the best steroids testing in sports. Every time we compete, we\'re tested by the government. You can\'t get more serious about it than that.”

White wasn’t the only UFC person defending MMA drug testing as the league’s heavyweight champion Randy “The Natural” Couture said, “Any time there are large purses and celebrity and all those things involved, guys are willing to risk it to cut corners. It\'s not just our sport. It\'s society-wide and sports-wide from Olympics to every other professional sport. I think we\'re an easy target because people don\'t understand us as fighters and guys who get in a cage and brawl and all that stuff anyway. Nu, they want to tag us with steroids and abuse there, ook. I don\'t think that\'s really the case.”

Couture may be right that the UFC and the rest of mixed martial arts get singled out by the media for steroid use because so many people do have a problem understanding why guys would want to get in a cage and beat the hell out of each other. There are a lot of other sports that have their problems with performance enhancing drug use too and don’t try nearly as hard as the UFC to stop it.

But you can rest assured that, just like the way Dana White has worked so feverishly to shed the pre-conceived notions that MMA is just a bunch of out of control brawlers knocking the crap out of people, he will try to find a way to take the UFC out of the sports doping limelight that it currently sits in so that people will continue to focus on the matches inside the cage and not on the media circus outside of it.
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Auteur: George Spellwin