‘Roid Rage: The Effect of Steroids on MMA

It's extremely necessary to talk about the growing issue of steroids. I collected lots of responses on steroids from interviews that we've had with many fighters, and I used them to take a look at the effect that it has on the sport of MMA.

Steroids have become a major part of almost every sport in America. There is the Barry Bonds controversy in baseball, the Chris Benoit tragedy in wrestling, the Marion Jones admittance in track & field, and the Shawne Merriman mystery in football. The last thing that a sport needs right now is a top star getting caught with steroids.

Enter Sean Sherk.

At UFC 73 in his first title defense, the UFC Lightweight Champion Sean “The Muscle” Sherk defeated Hermes Franca to retain the Lightweight title. However, in a post-fight drug test Franca tested positive for Drostanolone and Sherk tested positive for Nandrolone, which are both illegal substances. There is still some controversy surrounding Sherk testing positive, because he passed a lie detector test saying that he never knowingly took steroids. His suspension was recently reduced from a year to 6th months, which means that he will be able to fight in January. This whole Sherk situation affects MMA to a great extent because it has the fans wondering if their favorite fighter is on roids.

There’s no doubt about the fact that steroids give you the competitive edge in a fight. Steroids increase protein synthesis in cells, which builds cellular tissue in muscles. However, this competitive edge is in full effect in the training for the fight rather then the actual fight.

Big John McCarthy:“The advantage of steroids isn't so much in the actual fight as much as the training. You can train longer, train harder, and recover from those longer harder training sessions. To talk about strength and size, that's really not going to be much of an advantage in the fights. The ability to train longer, harder, and recover faster is a huge advantage.” With an advantage like this it’s easy to see why fighters would want to use steroids, however one still wonders why these fighters take them due to the amount of guys getting caught lately.

Cole Miller:“I think these guys are in it for the short run. None of these guys taking juice will be in the UFC in 10 years…They don’t care if they get caught. If they really cared, they wouldn’t do it. I would love to fight some of these guys on HGH or steroids if they were clean.”

It is incredibly important for all MMA organizations to crack down hard on steroid usage. It’s cheating, it’s not healthy, and it’s not fun for the fans. I can’t count how many times I’ve watched Barry Bonds hit a homerun and thought to myself “That was great! It’s too bad he’s on steroids.” And according to Murilo “Ninja” Rua, this testing isn’t happening everywhere.

Murilo "Ninja" Rua: “In Hawaii, to my surprise, there weren't any tests. I don't know why. It is important to guarantee that both guys that get into the ring have the same opportunities. But the UFC specifically has done a fantastic job of testing their fighters after each fight."

Marcus Davis: “I’ve been tested every time I have ever fought in the UFC except once and I don't know how anyone would risk it. I will say that if they did this in any other sport you would see 10 more times people getting caught then you do in MMA.”

Back to Sherk. After all of this controversy, one wonders if Sherk used steroids against Kenny Florian to win the Lightweight title. That seems a little cheap to Kenny Florian, who is a small 155 pounds. When I was talking to Kenny Florian about the steroid issue, he said: “Steroids should have no part in any sport especially in a sport where hurting another individual is involved. It's cheating. When does it stop? If they use steroids, I will bring in a knife? Is this the mentality? Anything to win? There is no honor in using PED's in MMA and I think there are going to be cowards in all sports who are willing to take those risks." This quote sums everything up perfectly. Steroids do not belong in any sport, but especially a sport where you are often trying to over-power another individual. It’s not entertaining to watch a guy who is obviously on steroids fight a guy who is obviously not. Entertainment comes from healthy competition and great fights, not a muscular display.

I repeat, nobody wants to see a fighter on steroids! The bottom line is that taking steroids is cheating, unhealthy, and it's not fun to have this question in the back of your head constantly: "Is this guy on steroids?"