UFC
New Jersey, Ohio commission representatives respond to Nevada's testosterone replacement therapy ban
Feb 28, 2014 - 11:55:45 AM New Jersey, Ohio commission representatives respond to Nevada's testosterone replacement therapy ban

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By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief

Officials for two different state athletic commissions have chimed in on the testosterone replacement therapy issue after the Nevada Athletic Commission banned the treatment entirely on Thursday.

Bernie Profato, commissioner for the Ohio State Athletic Commission, released a statement to FoxSports.com's Damon Martin Thursday afternoon shortly after the news broke of the NAC's move, and he expressed support of the outright ban. His statement is below:

"Our commission has already discussed banning them as Nevada has done. However I wouldn't want to speak on their behalf. I suggested at the meeting that some of us wanted to have the ABC's Medical committee to do more research. I understand where there coming from because it removes a big headache for Commissions. Rules and laws are put on place most of the time for a small percentage who are looking to gain an advantage by violating that rule. If they have found that there is an ADVANTAGE gained, then I totally agree that it should be banned. However rules especially one like this has to be administered CONSISTENTLY BY ALL. You can't have some having the ban and some not. Those using will run to the state and tribal commissions that don't regulate it or ban it. My opinion if there's an advantage then I agree to BAN.

Following up on that was Nick Lembo of the New Jersey State Athletic Control Board. New Jersey's commission has long been held as one of the premier sanctioning bodies in MMA, and Lembo gave a lengthy statement regarding New Jersey's take on the situation to veteran MMA reporter Jim Genia.

"Since January 1, 2008, NJ has had 4,930 MMA contestants compete in agency regulated bouts.

The New Jersey State Athletic Control Board has only granted one initial TRT therapeutic use exemption of those 4,930 MMA contestants. That one exemption was subsequently revoked when that individual failed an agency required random monitoring test several months subsequent to his NJ bout contest date.

The NJSACB has also honored exemptions to two of the 4,930 MMA contestants based on exemptions originally granted in multiple other jurisdictions and after additional testing and board certified endocrinologist documentation was supplied.

The NJSACB has refused TRT exemptions to over a dozen applicant contestants.

In addition, the NJSACB has never granted a TUE for TRT to any of the multitude of professional boxers, Thai fighters or kick boxers subject to its purview.

At this juncture, the NJSACB will continue to adhere to the very strict International Olympic Committee therapeutic use exemption standards.

Based on the IOC poilcy, the ABC medical committee set forth and published extremely rigorous guidelines for the consideration and granting of TUE's during its presentation to the ABC membership at the July 2011 annual convention.

That being said, we will consider Nevada's decision today and look forward to discussing how to handle the rare candidate who indeed has a true legitimate medical reason for usage. As examples, an individual returning from military duty who has suffered testicular malfunction from an IED explosion, those with pituitary giantism, testicular cancer survivors, and transgender contestants.

We hope that all MMA contestants are subject to repetitive and efficient drug testing protocols without regard to whether a TUE for TRT is at issue. I think we can all agree, regardless of positions on TUE's, that performance enhancing drug testing needs to be analyzed, implemented and continually improved."

Lembo further provided copies of the NJSACB's on file protocols for therapeutic use exemptions (CLICK HERE).

Nevada's decision has already had one bout casualty, as Vitor Belfort pulled out of UFC 173 citing a need for time to get off his TRT program in wake of the news, with Lyoto Machida replacing him in the title fight with Chris Weidman.

Penick's Analysis: While an outright ban may not come to every commission, standards might be tightened for many. New Jersey has been the strictest in MMA regarding this, making the process of receiving a TUE extremely difficult for any fighter. Because of that, they're not likely to change their policies entirely. The issue remains murky as well, because while outright banning TRT is a good publicity move for the NAC and the UFC in response, it's only one of the many drug issues in the sport, and they need to implement random, out-of-competition drug testing during fight camps in order to begin weeding out the high level of drug use in the sport.