FACEBOOK TWITTER RSS APP PODCAST Opinion & Analysis : Hyden's Take HYDEN BLOG: The Matter Of PED Use

Nov 19, 2009 - 1:25:26 PM
By Frank Hyden, MMATorch Contributor

Visual evidence isn't the sole indicator of PED (Performance-Enhancing Drugs) use. After all, there have been relievers in Major League Baseball that have been busted for PED's. Plenty of athletes use them to recover from injury and fatigue, rather than to gain muscle mass. Of course, being able to get stronger as well as recover quicker is a nice bonus. In almost every sport, added strength is an advantage.

I wrote the other day that I believe that Brock Lesnar has used in the past, and is probably still using, PED's. The past aspect of that statement is easy to prove. the guy was in WWE for a handful of years. It's well-known that a lot of wrestlers use PED's. You can look at before and after pictures of them and see for yourself. You can look at pictures of Brock before, during, and after he was a wrestler and see a huge change. I also think he's still on PED's. He might be using different ones. He might be blood-packing instead of using THG, he might be using a diuretic instead of using Madol, but I think he's still using. This stuff can't be tested for, unless you invest in a very large and very expensive laboratory. The guys who are making these designer steroids always try to stay one step ahead of all this drug testing. That's why Brock's claim of never failing in over 75 drug tests doesn't hold much weight for me. It won't surprise me if it comes out that Lance Armstrong was using a PED all those years he won the Tour De France. He passed a whole battery of drug tests, but a lot of this stuff you can't test for.

I don't want to single out Brock in this case. I think it's very possible, if not probable, that a majority of UFC and Strikeforce fighters are using PED's. Oftentimes, fighters have three or four months from the time a fight is announced to the time it happens. You could easily cycle on a steroid for a month or so, then get off, and be clean by the time the fight rolls around. You could blood-pack, where they take a few pints of your blood a few months before your fight, then inject you with that blood right before your fight, to increase blood cell count. If you took 20 random MMA fighters, I would bet that over half of them would test positive for a PED, assuming you could test for everything.

When people think of PED's, they think of steroids or HGH. What about cortisone shots that athletes get to, "play through the pain"? Isn't that basically the same thing? You're using something to gain an advantage, in this case, to play when normally the pain would prohibit that. Training at high altitudes is also something that gives you an advantage. Not everyone has the ability to train at places a mile or so above sea level. It's just that those things are accepted, whereas other forms aren't. They're accepted because they've been done for so long that we're used to it. Where do you draw the line? Is it things that aren't potentially dangerous? Cortisone shots mask the pain, they don't heal it. You could injure yourself further because you don't have the natural pain sensations to tell you when to stop.

A reader by the name of Shannon posted a link in the Comments section that lead to a story about steroid use masking the early signs of diverticulitis. This doesn't prove anything, but it does add a bit more weight to the possibility of Brock Lesnar using PED's. He's not alone, though. There are probably hundreds of athletes who have used PED's, even if you only count the designer steroids or other such manufactured means of gaining an advantage. The only people who refuse to take drug tests, or storm out of interviews when asked, are those who have something to hide. I would have no problem taking a drug test, I have nothing to hide. I'm talking a real drug test, though, something that tests for everything. I'm sure many of the people reading this would have no problem taking a drug test, they have nothing to hide. Albert Pujols has said he'd have no problem taking a drug test at anytime. Brock Lesnar has stormed out of interviews when asked about taking a drug test. That sounds like what Sammy Sosa did in the past. If Brock is truly clean, he should be wanting to take a drug test. In this day and age, no athlete is above reproach.

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