Friend of our site


MMA Headlines


UFC HP


Bleacher Report


MMA Fighting


MMA Torch


MMA Weekly


Sherdog (News)


Sherdog (Articles)


Liver Kick


MMA Junkie


MMA Mania


MMA Ratings


Rating Fights


Yahoo MMA Blog


MMA Betting


Search this site



Latest Articles


News Corner


MMA Rising


Audio Corner


Oddscast


Sherdog Radio


Video Corner


Fight Hub


Special thanks to...

Link Rolodex

Site Index


To access our list of posting topics and archives, click here.

Friend of our site


Buy and sell MMA photos at MMA Prints

Site feedback


Fox Sports: "Zach Arnold's Fight Opinion site is one of the best spots on the Web for thought-provoking MMA pieces."

« | Home | »

Keith Kizer: PA/NJ ACs & UFC ‘stood up in favor of a clean sport’ w/ Nate Marquardt

By Zach Arnold | June 29, 2011

Print Friendly and PDF

MIKE STRAKA: “You obviously know what happened with Nate Marquardt today and it’s sort of reminiscent to what happened with Chael Sonnen last year, you know, everybody says they’ve disclosed it, they’re trying to do the right thing when it comes to Testosterone Replacement Therapy but, you know, from your perspective what is going on with these athletes and who are these doctors that are recommending this TRT and how can we educate both the fighters and the viewers as to what’s going on?”

KEITH KIZER: “Well, first off, there may be legitimate reasons why athletes need TRT or other forms of therapeutic use of, otherwise, prohibited substances and because of that that’s why there’s procedures in place, be it at the Olympic level, be it at the state commission level, be it in private leagues that they have this. It’s very important. You don’t want an athlete to have to choose between getting better, getting well, and competing. If in fact you do both without putting either himself at unfair risk or putting his opponent at unfair advantage.”

MIKE STRAKA: “Got it. Now, with Nate Marquardt’s issue and I don’t know if you know the full story…”

KEITH KIZER: “I don’t. I don’t know much about that case, I can only talk generally.”

MIKE STRAKA: “Essentially, he disclosed to Pennsylvania that he was on TRT. He actually disclosed to New Jersey, New Jersey let him fight but with the condition that he gets re-tested, he goes off the TRT, gets re-tested, and then gets re-evaluated by a doctor, a specialist who then would determine whether he needed to be on TRT or not. And what transpired was he never went to a specialist and Pennsylvania never recognized his doctor as being somebody who could prescribe TRT in his case. So, with that and I may be getting a little bit of that wrong but that’s pretty much the gist of it and with that he was not medically cleared to fight on (Sunday) fight. Now, have you been… disclosed to by fighters, I don’t care about their names, but I mean is it a regularity where people say, ‘OK, Mr. Kizer, I am on TRT, here’s my paperwork, here’s my doctors, here’s my diagnosis?'”

KEITH KIZER: “Well, it’s actually not just TRT, there could be several different drugs where you’d want a Therapeutic Use Exemption (TUE) and in those situations, though testosterone may be the most common of those, the process is always the same. It’s very rare, maybe a couple times a year when we have this situation and what we require is we need proof of the medical illness and deficiencies, we need from their doctor the test that proved it, we need the treatment plan from their doctor and a certification from their doctor that use of this treatment plan will not put my patient at undue harm or no it will give him an unfair advantage over his opponent. Just because you get an exemption to use a certain drug doesn’t mean you could super doses of it, for example, of testosterone. So, therefore, if you did get a TUE but then you violated the exemption by super dosing, the exemption goes away and you could be subject to discipline. So, it’s very important.

“What we do in Nevada, I’m sure they do in other states as well, is once we get all that information, you know, test results, let’s use testosterone for the example here. Test results showing the athlete is truly low in testosterone, they just can’t be the low end of normal, it has to be low. Then also something from the doctor saying here’s the treatment plan for this athlete, if he follows that treatment plan he will neither be at undue risk nor at an unfair advantage in his competition if he follows that plan and doesn’t super dose. We go a little bit further, we also require the athlete to give us something under oath, penalty of perjury, that he’s never failed a drug test before and that he’s never ever taken PEDs before because, for example, under WADA as well as Nevada Athletic Commission, if you’re deficient in testosterone because you previously used performance-enhancing drugs, you cannot get a TUE because you did it to yourself, self-inflicted injury. So, but if the athlete did be able to complete all those things, we have all the information from his doctor showing that it’s a legitimate medical need, it’s a legitimate medical treatment, it won’t put him in harm’s way nor will it give him an unfair advantage over his opponent and our doctor calls that doctor and clarifies all that stuff and we get the affidavit and there’s no other evidence that perhaps there was some prior PED usage, the person would be able to get a TUE along the guidelines set forth by our doctor and his doctor. Again, you cannot super dose.

“There’s also something that’s checked on, it’s the LH (Luteinizing hormone/lutropin) and FSH (follicle-stimulating hormone) levels that are checked at the same time as the testosterone levels and those two levels have to be normal or better and again the testosterone level has to be low in order to really qualify automatically or that’s not the right word but to qualify normally for such an exemption. Those are the levels that they check. If your LH & FSH levels are low that does indicate that it could be from prior steroids. If those levels are normal or high, odds are really, really, really good that it wasn’t due to prior PED usage because I guess those are the levels that go down due to steroid usage in the past. So, you know, if I get an athlete that the doctors know has explained all that sufficiently, our doctor checks it out and he’s happy with it, the blood tests a low T/E but a normal-to-high LH & FSH and I get the affidavit from the athlete and there’s no other evidence that the athlete used PEDs in the past, they have a very good chance of getting a TUE, they should get a TUE in a case like that and, again, they don’t have to choose between leading a healthy life and leading a life as a professional athlete nor should they. On the other hand, if they’re not entitled a TUE, they don’t meet the burden, then they have two choices — take the drugs and don’t compete or compete but don’t take the drugs. But again, hopefully there’s a situation in legitimate case where the athlete can do because there’s no harm, no foul.”

MIKE STRAKA: “Now, I know that you’re not a doctor, but I mean does testosterone really give somebody an advantage over an opponent?”

KEITH KIZER: “Yes, it could, it could, depending on the usage of it, it definitely could.”

MIKE STRAKA: “I see. Obviously, there are cases where people, as you just described, they do get exempted. In the case of Chael Sonnen, for instance, in California that was, I mean, he did mention that you had cleared him, you adamantly denied that and he came back and apologized and now he’s said that, you know, you didn’t quite say that. We all know that story. What is your feeling on Chael? Is it possible that he’s going to be able to come back in time?”

KEITH KIZER: “Uh, Chael, as far as I know, is still under suspension by the California commission I think until (Wednesday). What he does after that, I don’t know.”

MIKE STRAKA: “Right. Well, interesting, very interesting. I mean, is there anything, I mean, UFC holds their fighter summits, Mr. Kizer, and they do a good job at teaching these guys what they can say to the media and how they should carry themselves outside of the Octagon and Twittering and all that stuff and I’m quite certain they do these kinds of seminars where they talk about PEDs but is there… you know with such a high-profile firing of one of the greatest fighters in that division, in the Welterweight division, Nate Marquardt, do you think there’s going to come a time where they’re going to have to really educate these guys on PEDs and what they can & cannot do and do they need to bring in somebody like you to help them out?”

KEITH KIZER: “I think the seminars they give, their fighter summit they give every year to all their athletes, I think they do a very good job of that already and not to mention that any pro-athlete can easily get their information or his trainer can or his manager can with about 10 minutes on the Internet, if that much time, so it really leads to the cliché that ‘ignorance is no excuse.’ There’s a reason it’s a cliché because it’s true. So, I don’t know if there’s any additional burden you need to put on the promoter but when you do see something like this where the Pennsylvania commission, the New Jersey commission, and the UFC stood up in favor of a clean sport, it’s a good day for everybody except for those athletes who are trying to sneak one over us on all. So, I have great praise to Nick Lembo in New Jersey, Greg Sirb in Pennsylvania, and Dana White & the UFC in how they handled this case. So, that’s good, and maybe it’s a new day for uh the UFC on that. I know when they do The Ultimate Fighter TV show the fighters who pass the tryouts on the skill level and experience level, they do drug test them and if they fail that they don’t get on the show so they’ve done a lot in the past, you know some people might say they’ve been inconsistent in that matter but nonetheless any little bit helps and, again, I give them great praise for how they handled the situation this weekend as I do the New Jersey Athletic Control Board and the Pennsylvania State Athletic Commission.”

Topics: Media, MMA, UFC, Zach Arnold | 17 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |

17 Responses to “Keith Kizer: PA/NJ ACs & UFC ‘stood up in favor of a clean sport’ w/ Nate Marquardt”

  1. fd says:

    “We go a little bit further, we also require the athlete to give us something under oath, penalty of perjury, that he’s never failed a drug test before and that he’s never ever taken PEDs before because, for example, under WADA as well as Nevada Athletic Commission, if you’re deficient in testosterone because you previously used performance-enhancing drugs, you cannot get a TUE because you did it to yourself, self-inflicted injury”

    So given this, why was Nate even under consideration for a TUE, since he popped positive for nandralone in his very first UFC fight?

  2. The Gaijin says:

    http://www.bloodyelbow.com/2011/6/29/2249783/spike-tv-proves-point-by-airing-countdown-to-ufc-132-in-mid-afternoon

    So I gotta say that after Sunday night and this^ it’s kinda surreal to see someone play hardball/dirty pool with UFC the same way they’ve done with others. DW must be ready to rip some heads off, but maybe that means they’ll come to the table and do what’s best for both companies.

    While I do have to wonder what Spike will use to fill it’s programming if UFC walks due to these negotiations (Bellator and M-1 would be a bet), I have to laugh at the typical mma mouthbreathers/bubble-dwellers that are carrying on that Spike is going to be the biggest loser and that they’re screwed without UFC.

  3. “You don’t want an athlete to have to choose between getting better, getting well, and competing. If in fact you do both without putting either himself at unfair risk or putting his opponent at unfair advantage.”

    Am I the only one who sees this as backwards thinking? The whole point of being a competitive athlete is that you condition yourself to be at peak condition and health in order to compete. If you can’t, you can’t compete at that level or shouldn’t compete at all. If your body betrays you, then you adjust with skill or strategy. Barring that, it means you are not as good as other guys. Which is the whole point. And if your health is declining, you don’t compete. Because you can’t.

    Please, someone chime in, because I must be missing something here.

    • fd says:

      If you’re a competitive athlete and you’re injured, you get the treatment necessary to return you to normal health, and you continue to play.

      If you’re a competitive athlete and you have a chronic illness that inhibits your performance, you get the treatment necessary to return you to normal health, and you continue to play.

      Low testosterone (ACTUAL chronic low testosterone, not just “low end of normal” like gets “diagnosed” by crooked HRT clinics, or temporary low testosterone like WWF guys frequently used to get scrips from mark doctors) is a chronic illness that inhibits your performance – so you get it documented thoroughly, you get the treatment necessary to return you to normal health (ie to normal levels of testosterone – not higher, which would be performance enhancing) and continue competing.

      It’s not honestly that complicated.

    • ergface says:

      I’m with you KM. If a fighter requires TRT to get back to his previous elite performance level, he should no longer be around at the highest levels. I cannot see it as analogous to other injuries or ailments because this treatment is too ripe for abuse in pursuit of performance enhancement. These guys are not that special that we should abide this gray area around the matter of test/PEDs just for them. If you are a competitive athlete and for some valid reason your body’s test levels drop, it’s too bad but you really should be done at the top level. Just like if you suffer from a youth deficiency.

  4. […] use (and if it is, they’re automatically ineligible for a TUE in Nevada). Transcription via Fight Opinion: “There’s also something that’s checked on, it’s the LH (Luteinizing hormone/lutropin) and […]

  5. Zack says:

    If your body doesn’t produce enough testosterone to make you beat the shit out of people, maybe you shouldn’t make a living beating the shit out of people.

  6. 45 Huddle says:

    The concept of a STATE Athletic Commission is extremely outdated.

    Fighters have and organizations have to work their way through 50 different procedures based on each state that can either vary slightly or largely.

    I don’t mind AC’s for small time promoters. But it makes no sense for the UFC and even the HBO or Showtime boxing cards. There really needs to be a NATIONAL Athletic Commission that takes care of all these issues. It would be much easier to steer this ship then what is currently going on.

    • Chuck says:

      It wouldn’t be THAT easy. For one thing that would trample on the states’ rights of being semi-autonomous which is guaranteed in the Constitution of the US. Secondly they would put in a total czar to be the head of it all. You think they would get someone in the fighting field? Nope. They would get a political crony. That already happens with state athletic commissions, but at least they aren’t as far-reaching as a national commission would be.

      A national commission would also put in a ton of bullshit rules. There would be rules like one-year (or even permanent) bans on fighters with five or so straight losses, or three straight KO losses. Probably an age maximum (Japan and the JBC tried that with age 37, and it backfired. And when the age maximum got lifted, there was a 42 at the time year old boxer who was forcibly retired that went on, like, a seven fight winning streak. Can’t remember the guy’s name).

      Would I be in favor of a national commission? For the most part……yeah. Yeah I would. But it isn’t as easy of a fix as most would like to think it is. Too much government bureaucracy.

    • PL Allie says:

      I think the big US commissions should allies to create a separate entity that would take care of all fighter related issues. The state commission would still be in control of everything else.

  7. EJ says:

    Did the only thing the PASAC did was show what a well run and proffesional AC looks like. Unlike the CSAC and NSCA they actually have their stuff together and didn’t end up looking like a bunch of unproffesional idiots during this mess with Nate. From the start they were on their game and notified everyone ahead of time as to what was neccesary for Nate to get cleared to fight.

    Also with the rightfull overturning of the Lents-Oliveira again they just showed how much more on the ball their entire commission is. This would not happen with the other 2 commissions who are more interested in press releases and interviews than actually running a legit AC. But it’s nice to know that all hope isn’t lost and there are actually people who are on their job even if it exposes what a joke the top 2 AC’s are in the proccess.

  8. […] go to a commission and get a Therapeutic Use Exemption (TUE), and off you go. Keith Kizer says Nevada has protocols to weed out the steroid users from non-steroid users in order to qualify for TRT, but color me […]

  9. Nate Morales says:

    I think Nate deserves his contract back…he sure is a great guy and a great contender. The UFC probably didn’t want him to get the title, it was gonna happen for sure.

  10. […] Keith Kizer came out last year during the Nate Marquardt incident and tried to make the case for how Nevada’s TUE for TRT usage works. Color me unconvinced. I believe that if you are not currently or actively fighting/training and you need to use testosterone legally, so be it. Once you are active or training again, there should be no allowance for TRT usage under any circumstances. This is fight sport, not tennis. As Victor Conte appropriately stated last year during an interview with Eddie Goldman, MMA is the hurt game. Using testosterone in a hurt game changes how much physical punishment you can inflict on an opponent. This isn’t about running faster. This is about concussing someone in the head as hard as possible during a fight. […]

Comments to Dr. Margaret Goodman: If the UFC & fighters don’t clean up their sport, the US Government will step in | FightOpinion.com – Your Global Connection to the Fight Industry.

*
To prove you're a person (not a spam script), type the security word shown in the picture.
Anti-spam image