So Zach, I’m curious since you seem to be taking quite a populist approach and pointing fingers without any critical analysis of what can be done and why doing anything at all is better than leaving it as it is.

I didn’t know that a ‘populist’ approach = not wanting to see guys dope and drop dead. I thought it was more or less a common sense approach.

I wrote a long article on MMA’s drug culture for CBS Sportsline. What you saw on Friday was part one of the report. Part two revolves around what kinds of “Acts of God” could shock the industry into changing and also what should be done for solutions. It’s currently with the editors to look over and analyze.

But, fair enough, you asked me for my thoughts. I look a lot at what has happened in wrestling and see how it applies to MMA. When you look at “Acts of God” you’re talking about guys dropping dead, scandals coming from depositions during a lawsuit, police arrest drug suppliers, or someone in the business writing a scandal book. Realistically, there isn’t an “Act of God” that is going to completely change things around.

So, you have to move to solutions that can be applied to the situation. A lot it revolves around education and also gym owners making a conscious decision to stop the flow of drugs going into training centers. Bas Boon, who is a co-manager for Golden Glory, has a very good record of keeping drugs away from fighters. It really comes down to whether or not fighters are willing to make the choice to stay away from the drugs. I also think education (such as symposiums that Marc Ratner is proposing) on issues such as weight-cutting can help. It’s a daunting task and you’ll never eliminate the drug culture in MMA, but you sure as hell can slow it down. At this point, slowing it down would be a nice and positive babystep to take.

I’ve read your articles and your opinions here and while you’ve spent a lot of time saying that there is a drug culture in MMA — and I fully agree, btw; the drug culture and abuse will only get worse as the paydays go higher — and that something needs to be done.

So do you expect to be done? How will it prevent (or stem) drug abuse?

Any status quo “solution” — one that only moves abusers from using run of the mill steroids to more sophisticated technology without decreasing the overall number of abusers — is not a real solution. We’re trying to prevent fighters from abusing in the first place, right? Not just catch more offenders…

That’s not a handful. Just like the amount of deaths of pro-wrestlers due to prescription and hardcore bodybuilding drugs is not a handful, either. [/quote]

This is horrible reporting. There were 23 drug suspensions in California, but what were they for? Out of how many competitors? Not only that , your comparison of marijuana or cocaine positives to use of anabolic steroids by pro wrestlers is ridiculous. You know it and I know it.

Wrestlers in WWE work about 200 days a year. Prescription drugs are a major problem in wrestling, just like they are in MMA. There’s certainly an element of bodybuilding in both sports. And a lot of drug abuse. Kevin Randleman is very lucky that he is alive at this moment.

Kevin Randleman was allowed to do whatever he wanted early on in the UFC (when there was no testing) and in Japan (where there was no testing), but upon his return to the US for PRIDE in Vegas, he turns up positive and gets a medical suspension. What does that say about the drug problem in the UFC, particularly given that they run mostly in major commission states?

I hate to break it to you, but there is a drug epidemic in MMA just like there is in wrestling. Mike Sawyer, who lives in Las Vegas, can tell you first-hand just how bad the drug problem is. Pain pills, in his words, are passed out like candy. Mike even wrote a column detailing household items used to beat the current drug tests.

I have friends in Las Vegas too, and I wouldn’t ask them what the drug problem in MMA is like because they don’t know. Who is Mike Sawyer? A dude who works at a strip club and writes about MMA for a pro wrestling website? Excuse me if I’m not convinced of his opinion. Will you quote MMA Torch next?

I’m begging you to read the Sportsline article again. Read the quotes about the drug problems in Japan. So much of the roots of modern MMA comes from pro-wrestling.

Did Hogan show Lance Armstrong how to cycle EPO? Who mixed Aaron Pryor’s bottle…was it really Panama Lewis, or was it VINCENT K. MCMAHON?

The culture of drugs in professional wrestling is not comparable to MMA. Wrestlers work 300 days a week with minimal rest/recovery time. MMA fighters perform 3-4 times a year and have private lives outside of the sport that they’re able to regularly partake in. When MMA fighters start kicking the bucket due to enlarged hearts and drug overdoses then I’ll find myself on your side. My point was that we need to be responsible journalists instead of creating an uproar over a handful of positive results.

There were 23 drug suspensions in California in 9 months. Add 20 more in the last 3 months. That’s 43 (not withstanding how many suspensions happened between January 1, 2007 and March 30th, 2007).

That’s not a handful. Just like the amount of deaths of pro-wrestlers due to prescription and hardcore bodybuilding drugs is not a handful, either.

Wrestlers in WWE work about 200 days a year. Prescription drugs are a major problem in wrestling, just like they are in MMA. There’s certainly an element of bodybuilding in both sports. And a lot of drug abuse. Kevin Randleman is very lucky that he is alive at this moment.

45 Huddles:

The MMA websites can be up and arms about the issue, but the show will continue to go on, and fans will continue to be entertained, with little care for these positive tests.

“The show must go on.” Hmmm… where have I heard this before.

Matt McEwen:

Is it a good thing for the sport to have a reigning champion test postive? No, it definitely is not, but neither is it a good thing for those who follow the sport closely and do good reporting – which Zach, Kevin Iole and others – to proclaim that there is a steroid epidemic in MMA and that if it isn’t cleaned up soon then all is doomed.

I hate to break it to you, but there is a drug epidemic in MMA just like there is in wrestling. Mike Sawyer, who lives in Las Vegas, can tell you first-hand just how bad the drug problem is. Pain pills, in his words, are passed out like candy. Mike even wrote a column detailing household items used to beat the current drug tests.

Go read his column and tell me there isn’t a major issue at hand.

And I would have to agree with Bren in saying that comparing the drug culture in MMA to the drug culture in pro wrestling is quite pointless. I honestly don’t see what the two have in common, other than the fact that a lot of people seem to be fans of both.

I’m begging you to read the Sportsline article again. Read the quotes about the drug problems in Japan. So much of the roots of modern MMA comes from pro-wrestling.

Like a few people have mentioned, testing is ALWAYS playing catch up to the cheaters. Pretty much the only people getting caught in the act are either A)desperate or B)using outdated methods.

Personally, I’d love it if Armstrong really did do it clean, but I just don’t see how someone is that dominant in a sport dominated by dopers for the better part of the past 20 years. Just like how 5 guys have hit more than 61 home runs in the past 5 or 6 years when no one could do it in the 35 or so before that.

Tying this back to MMA, I think the key is that the testing is done by state regulators who don’t have a vested interest in the fighter. I’m not going to say that test results would be buried by a promotion – and in regards to the UFC, I think they have shown a willingness and openess in punishing those found using – but there would always be the temptation.

I think the thing saving MMA is that there is not a demonstrated performance advantage to using steroids, as most of the people found to be using have been recovering from an injury more often than not.