UFC light heavyweight, Krzysztof Soszynski, believes that 85 to 95 percent of fighters are using PED (performance enhancing drugs) according to bloodyelbow.com.
"I even had someone talk to me about stem cell injections. You're looking at stuff like EPO, and at least five or six different counterfeit drugs out there that people are using and they're not even detectable in the body. It's just amazing to me how far athletes are willing to go to make their mark in this sport" Soszynski said.
PEDs, for the most part, haven't been unanimously linked with MMA and hopefully never will be. The most recent high profile case of PED usage was the TRT (testosterone replacement therapy) tied with Nate Marquardt's removal from UFC on Versus 4 after failing the pre-fight medical exam. Although not a PED per se, TRT is linked with PEDs since PEDs cause a drop in testosterone production in the body which would merit the use of TRT. More over, it was Marquardt's handling of his TRT that caused him to be booted from the UFC.
Soszynski states that he has never used PEDs in his eight year MMA career, although hinted that the same could not be said during his days as a body builder. Additionally other MMA notables such as BJ Penn has made accusations against fellow fighters for PED use. In this case, Penn believes that George St. Pierre is on PED usage although these claims were never proven to be true or otherwise.
"If there's a substance you can take out there that's going to make you bigger, stronger, more explosive, going to help you train harder, going to help you train longer, and it's going to help with your recovery as well, and you know if you take it the right way and follow the right instructions, you'll never get caught for it, wouldn't you take it?" Soszynski added.
For the UFC, who's quickly establishing itself as the premier MMA promotion if it hasn't done so already, would do well to prevent PED/TRT abuse within its fighters. CEO of Zuffa and UFC part owner, Lorenzo Fertitta, has pointed to random testing as a solution to PED/TRT abuse.







Quarterly Rankings


| (76) Comments
Click here to Register!