Todd Duffee and Dan Henderson Both Have Testosterone Replacement Therapy Exemptions in Nevada
(Yeah, I can see Duffee being testosterone deficient.)
According to a story in the most recent edition of Dave Meltzer’s F4WOnline newsletter, only two fighters have received approval in Nevada for testosterone replacement therapy and one of them is 24-year-old brick shithouse, Todd Duffee. The other one is 40-year-old former PRIDE champ Dan Henderson.
On an unrelated note, besides getting older, MMAJunkie’s resident medical expert, Dr. Johnny Benjamin pointed out this week that one primary cause of abnormally low testosterone levels in otherwise healthy males is prolonged steroid use.
Meltzer says that only one fighter has received medical clearance for his use of testosterone replacement in California, but CSAC would not reveal the name of the fighter whose name rhymes with Stan Menderson.
The report went on to debunk the rumor that UFC Hall-of-Famer Randy Couture has a TRT exemption.
Duffee was tested prior to his UFC 114 fight with Mike Russow in May, but was not tested afterwards as he lost the bout.
Is it just me, or does the testing criteria seems a bit flawed if they are only testing the winners and fighters involved in championship bouts?
What’s to stop someone from acquiring a doctor’s note stating that they have low T levels to cover them when the synthetic version of the hormone shows up in blood tests? Realistically, a fighter could boost the levels of the hormone in their system leading up to a fight to enhance strength training, endurance and recovery and then taper off prior to the bout to test within the allowable range.
Even if Sonnen’s case is completely legit, it has exposed an issue that has plagued the sport for some time which could only be curbed by the commissions or promotions instituting yearlong testing like the NFL or NHL have. With the amount of time fighters have off in between fights and the amount of times they are recovering from injuries and surgeries, there would be no way to know if they are aiding their recovery or training with the help of science and chemistry in the form of PEDs without set or random drug testing.
