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WALKER: The Rampage Equation, or Why the UFC Needs to Think Twice About TRT
Mar 15, 2012 - 11:35:17 AM WALKER: The Rampage Equation, or Why the UFC Needs to Think Twice About TRT

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By: Brad Walker, MMATorch Contributor

After the UFC 144 card in Japan, Quinton "Rampage" Jackson admitted to using testosterone replacement therapy (or TRT) prior to the fight. With the right doctors and reasons, it is completely legal in MMA; in fact, former Pride and Strikeforce champ Dan Henderson has used it since 2007 for a legitimate health condition. The problem currently is that people are failing tests for testosterone levels so high that Bruce Banner would drop dead in a faint, screaming that their urine was nuclear. Nate Marquardt is one of the bigger cases, and he was already on strike one for having tested positive for steroids in 2005. As we all know, the UFC released Nate after his test came back with high testosterone last year, and they have a history of ditching the PED positive fighters, so why is Rampage already on track for his final fight?

Rampage came out and said he was using it to speed up recovery on a knee injury, but I was unaware that the UFC had internal rules saying "oh, ok you go ahead and heal up as quickly as possible, do whatever it takes!" Personally I think this whole situation is a steaming pile of human fecal matter that we have all been fed on a dirty plate that was rinsed in run off from a zoo in Tijuana. First of all, when's the last time a fighter actually admitted to it before being popped in a drug test? I guess Hendo would count, but his use is legit as he became very legitimately sick due to extremely low levels. If Dana White is going to make negative remarks about Nick Diaz puffing a little reefer, how about he throws some quotes at Rampage for going to an "age doctor"?

Actually, let's take it a step further and look at the difference between smoking marijuana and using testosterone replacement therapy; marijuana is not going to help you in a fight, it's actually more likely to make you sluggish and cost you the fight. TRT will make you feel young again; it will make your body move faster, feel stronger and recover like it did in its prime. Somehow TRT is more acceptable to the UFC than the weed – and I presently and probably never will understand. I'm surprised, to say the least, that Dana White didn't immediately blow up twitter, or Ariel Helwani about how he was going to crucify Rampage for his admission, after all that's what Dana does when he's angry, he attacks. However, in this case he actually jumped to Jackson's defense, trying to discredit the interviewer and put a positive spin on things.

What the hell is going on over at Zuffa that the people in charge are willing to book Jackson's next fight for June, against an opponent who he doesn't even deserve a shot against (Shogun), and ignore the TRT issue altogether? It's despicable that some fighters can watch their entire career evaporate before their eyes for using TRT, while others like Jackson - who use it perhaps not so legitimately - don't even get a slap on the wrist. Rampage hasn't looked like a UFC level fighter in a long time, yet here we have Dana White shoving it down our throats that the interviewer is a prick, not Rampage. It's not even that I have a dislike for Jackson, I am a longtime fan of his, and I actually have a pit-bull named after him, it's just that when you do something wrong, you should be reprimanded. When his next fight takes place - presumably in June from Brazil - in a personal boycott, I will be changing the channel to Dora the Explorer, because the intensity is 10 fold what Rampage has brought in years.

In the end, we all as fans, writers, analysts - and most of all people - need to recognize that the performance enhancing drug boom goes far beyond baseball, and the other "mainstream" sports. We can't let people who are or were big stars off the hook because they command respect due to their reputation, we have to punish them all equally. If Tom Brady tests positive for a steroid in week one of the preseason, I want to see him get fined, suspended and punished just as if he were joe-schmoe from the practice squad. The same should go for every sport, if you're on TRT and you have an exemption based on a legitimate diagnosis, so be it; but if you don't, you should be treated as a cheater. It needs to be recognized and tested for more often, and even more so it needs to be regulated and removed from illegal use altogether.

Be sure to follow me on twitter - @BradMMATorch

[Rampage Jackson art by Cory Gould (c) MMATorch.com]