Joe Rogan & Ronda Rousey Discuss ‘Steroid Epidemic’ In MMA
It’s fair to say that the recent outbreak of failed drug tests in MMA is a black eye on the sport, hell, it’s more like a fractured orbital bone. You can check out the full and current list of failed PED (performance enhancing drug) tests here, but rest assured that’ll keep growing in the coming weeks. We are alarmed, and it’s apparent that this ‘epidemic’ is far from over.
UFC women’s bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey has been very vocal about her feelings towards drug cheats before, and it hasn’t changed much. Only now, she feels heartbroken according to a report on Yahoo! Sports:
“”I was heartbroken to hear that (Anderson Silva failed a drug test).””
“People need to realize that is a weapon and they’re bringing a weapon into the cage and they’re making our sport unsafe,” said Rousey, who is scheduled to fight Cat Zingano at UFC 184 on Feb. 28. “”The day that a person dies in that Octagon and the person who killed them tests positive for performance-enhancing drugs, we’re going to have our first homicide case. It’s going to destroy the whole sport.”
“Do you think that one little pay-per-view getting a couple of extra views is worth that? No, it’s not [expletive] worth it. I think there needs to be as strict of drug testing as there is for the Olympics, maybe even harder.”
A harsh view by the pioneer of women’s MMA, and one that is shared by UFC color commentator Joe Rogan, according to his recent JRE Podcast, as transcribed by MMAJunkie.com:
“The UFC and MMA in general is a steroid epidemic. They’ve started this really stringent testing, and everybody is getting popped. They’re just getting popped left and right. It’s one of the things fighters have been saying for a long time, that everyone is on steroids, or a huge percentage. The number (is) 50, 60 (percent), whatever it is.”
“Anderson was coming back from an injury, and the way I understand it, he tested positive for metabolites,” Rogan said. “It was leaving his system, a very trace amount. If that was the case, it could be that he got on some steroids to recover quicker. Because what steroids do, is they allow you to recover quicker.
“So if he’s 39 years old and he breaks his leg, you’re looking at a long-ass recovery period. Or you take steroids and you recover in nine months instead of 15 months or fill in the blank. That could be what’s going on, but the reality is it’s illegal. If it takes you 15 months, the excuse cannot be, ‘I’m going to take some illegal drugs so I heal quicker.’ No, you’re never allowed to take steroids.”
“The reality is, especially with this whole steroid epidemic, one thing we have to realize is the use of steroids is less than 100 years old,” Rogan said. “There’s always been something people have taken, but the actual use of anabolic steroids in human beings is relatively recent in human history. As time goes on, they’re going to create more powerful, crazy sh-t, and it’s going to get to the point where you’re going to test negative because it’s not in your system anymore, but your body will forever change.”
Rogan, as usual, has interesting points to make.
So what do you make of Joe Rogan and Ronda Rousey in their assessment of the current climate in MMA? Is it really that bad, or are we just blowing this whole PED thing out of proportion? In my mind, it really is that bad.
