Yeah Big Vitor went the 'sanctioned' route. Funny that a tiny fraction of the global population suffer from low testosterone, which produces serious and adverse side effects. And yet a bunch of healthy athletes in their 20's and 30's in the UFC are on legal hormone use/abuse. Its a f'in farce. The UFC is a joke.
Does he still get his purse? The only way these blokes might stop juicing is if their opponent or charity gets to keep their purse if testing positive.
They should just let everybody juice like in the Pride days. That was the real Wild West of the MMA world.
I am quite sure most of these guys are citing Nevada's 4:1, or California's 6:1, permitted T/E ratios; and their Dr's are letting them juice enough to get there. I'm sure you already know that most people are 1:1 at best. I'm not denying that this is going on. I do wonder if some of these otherwise seemingly fit fighters actually suffer from low test due to head trauma. I remember reading somewhere that James Toney has the testosterone levels of a 70 year old in an article addressing head trauma and how it relates to low testosterone and depression.
So stop watching it and reading about it and talking about it. I don't like the NBA, so guess what? I don't watch it or ***** about it online. :good :hat
hate to cite wikipedia but yeah they indicate that an average score for athletes was 1.15:1 on one study and note that only a real small % of athletes test at much higher levels of 3.71:1 and 5.25:1 (on another study). if they're gonna allow trt (which maybe they shouldn't) i would think that they should max a trt user at like 2:1 or so. that way, they can use it to level the playing field (if they must) but not get an advantage to where they can come in at 6:1 facing a guy with an average score of about 1:1
As long as there's an excuse fighters will cite whatever they like. Trauma, wear and tear bla bla bla. They're all convenient excuses. And what was James excuse when he was healthy? That dudes been on gear since the 90's. The only difference is his doctors fiddled him an excuse and now he gets to take them 'legally'. The entire system is a farce and the equivalent of the WWE's 'Wellness Policy' which is just an inconvenient tick box. At least with PRIDE neither did they care or bother. The hypocrisy simply wasn't there.
The ratio depends on the commission and sanctioning body. Bottom line is a guy with a ratio of more than 2:1 is on gear. Period. TRT exemptions should be banned outright. Dan Henderson nor Randy Couture would have had the lengthy successful careers they had if it wasn't for TRT.
Co-sign The idea that just because you get older means you should be exempt and get a pass for TRT is absurd. If your body cant produce the testosterone required to compete then stop ****ing fighting!!
Thats the sum total of it. Fighters of yesteryear had lower shelf lives. But because of modern sports science these guys cheat from early ages, cheating themselves and the fans.
Banning is probably the best idea. All i'm saying is that if they're going to allow some fighters to use it whether it's due to past juicing, age, or more legitimate reasons I would think it would be more fair to limit the levels to 2:1 of maybe even 1:1 so they don't have an advantage over a non using average athlete. But again, banning would be fine too
I'm of the school of thought that TRT equals legal cheating. In fighting you need to let your body age naturally. If they weren't fighters then I totally understand how taking TRT would help other areas like your mood but as long as they are fighting a 35 year old man can't get his testosterone levels back to when he was 25 otherwise that is cheating.