Potential UFC, Strikeforce Signees Now Subject to PED Testing

[Kemal]

Fighters from now on will be screened for performance-enhancing drugs prior to signing with the UFC or Strikeforce, Zuffa announced Tuesday.

This announcement comes off the heels of two straight Strikeforce events with drug test failures from major Strikeforce players. In the last 11 days, athletic commissions have named both former women's 145-lb. champ Cris Cyborg and former 205-lb. champ Muhammed "King Mo" Lawal for testing positive for steroids.

"The health and safety of our athletes is our top priority," UFC president Dana White said in a press release. "We've seen the issues performance-enhancing drugs have caused in other sports and we're going to do everything we can to keep them out of the UFC and Strikeforce. Our athletes are already held to the highest testing standards in all sports by athletic commissions. Our new testing policy for performance-enhancing drugs only further shows how important it is to us to have our athletes competing on a level playing field."

Current UFC and Strikeforce fighters will continue to be drug tested before and after fights as well as randomly in accordance with respective athletic commissions.

The policy of screening potential signees for PEDs prior to finalizing a contract officially came into effect Jan. 1.

[Kemal]

Sean McCorkle Thinks MMA Should Do Away With Drug Testing

Already on Tuesday, we've heard news about former Strikeforce light-heavyweight Muhammed "King Mo" Lawal testing positive for steroids, as well as the UFC implementing a performance-enhancing drugs screening for all new fighters about to sign a contract with the promotion.

Suffice it to say, finding a way to stop cheating is a big topic of the day.

UFC fighter Sean McCorkle, who has always been known for his blunt honesty, has another idea, though. If it were up to him, McCorkle would level the playing field by doing away with drug testing completely.

"What you end up with is a situation of where the guys who are beating the test, where the guys who can afford to get a doctor to prescribe whatever they want, where the guys who have access to stuff, they have an unfair advantage already," he said on Tuesday's edition of The MMA Hour. "I think we'd be pretty naive to think that every person who's ever taken anything was caught. So I think, to me, in all professional sports, I say, let guys do whatever they want to do and be done with it. I don't think anybody's going to make or break their career based on steroids unless you're talking about longevity, because to my understanding, the majority of them are used for recovery from injury."

He noted that at least when it comes to MMA, most athletes aren't looking to gain muscle mass since most have to cut weight during the course of training camp.

McCorkle (13-2) who had three fights in the UFC in a six-month stretch from Sept. 2010 to March 2011, is currently a free agent and has three fights scheduled for the future, with the first coming on January 28 on NAAFS' Caged Fury 16 card in Morgantown, West Virigina.

McCorkle hopes to parlay a win streak into another job with a major MMA organization, but even if he were thrust back into a job with other elite heavyweights, he would have no issue with fighting in a league with no drug testing, noting that "most guys who test positive have lost their fights."

Part of his issue with it stems from the difficulty of defining what is and isn't a PED.

"There's stuff at [nutrition store] GNC that will make you pee hot for a PED, and it's not necessarily something that's going to enhance your performance at all," he said. "It's just something that's banned."

As an example of the madness, he said that when he was in the UFC, he was told by company officials not to take Tylenol or aspirin during fight week. He also noted that PED problems are not simply an issue in MMA, but throughout the entire sports world, and one that will likely never be fully stopped.

"I always said in the past, the only people who take steroids are the guys who like winning and money," he said.

[redjuh]

ben t niet met hem eens. als je het toestaat, dwing je de gasten die niet gebruiken al zowat de naald in de bil...
ze kunnen beter het cutten van gewicht beter gaan reguleren. dat er dus sowieso een maximum is wat je mag cutten en ook dat je de wedstrijd zelf niet zwaarder mag wegen dan bv. gewichtsklasse x 7,5%.

en dat gasten die gebruiken om echt de prestatier te verhogen, het doen voor geld en het winnen = bull shit.
die gasten doen het omdat ze niet genoeg aan hun techniek hebben, geen vertrouwen hebben in zichzelf en ook niet in hun trainers coaches en trainingspartners.

[stephan_dude]

helemaal mee eens redjuh. het mooie van de sport is je aan elkaar meten en te kijken hoe ver jij kan komen met de capaciteiten die je eigen lichaam heeft. als je daarvoor het groeihormoon van een gorilla nodig hebt moet je ook met een gorilla in de ring..