Chael Sonnen's "wrecked testes"

[jmose86]

A question occurred to me.
It was recently reported that Chael got his TUE. Does this mean that he fought Bisping and Stann without the roids? If he did so there is no point in giving him an exemption after those performances I think.

This was another interesting bit of bull**** to come out of Sonnen's last meeting with the NSAC. The commission asked him if he applied for and was granted a TUE for his previous fight against Bisping in Chicago. He said yes. At which point someone from MMAF (Ben Folkes I believe) tweeted that they asked the Illinois commission who told them they have no procedures in place for a testosterone TUE so this was a lie.

[telerion]

So the Rich Franklin interview today in which he discussed TRT got me thinking. He reminded people that once you start TRT, you're on it for life because your body stops (or greatly reduces testo production). For the sake of argument, let's assume this is true.

Now imagine that the NSAC reevaluates its current position and decides that TRT is bull****. The people who need it for reasons other than self-inflicted ones (unhealthy weight cutting, roid abuse), don't become UFC fighters. So they say no more TUE's.

What do they do about the guys who already have TUE's? Because of past TRT these fighters have a legitimate reason for continuing TRT, and the NSAC signed off on it originally. Do you exempt them from the ban, letting them have a sanctioned advantage, and just wait for these guys to eventually retire? Do you say tough luck and treat them like everyone else, effectively forcing them to either retire or cheat.

I'm not using this as an excuse for continuing to give TUE's, but I think it could be a real headache. Worse, the more TUE's the NSAC gives out, the bigger this problem will be.

[skeletonrock]

I say cut it off completely. If fighters aren't able to fight anymore, then have them retire.

[split decision]

Just start a former TUE division, you know, guys with little, spindly arms and atrophied gonads.

[Achillles41]

I agree with banning it. It is just too much of a headache for the comissions. But I seriously question the amount that this stuff helps fighters. I have rolled, wrestled and sparred with fighters on and off the stuff, and really have not felt a difference between guys on gear on guys who are clean. There was an interesting article a while back that listed fighters who had been caught for roids compared to the results of their most recent fights, and the win rate was just about 50%. So it really didn't make a difference.

I know that there are a lot of people who disagree, and that is fine, but I just don't see the difference. I think the big difference is seen with age of fighters. I truly believe that young fighters are only marginally helped by PEDs, and that the real difference they make is to allow fighters to fight farther into old age because they are able to recover from injury and continue to train hard into their old age. Maybe I am way off in my assessment though. I don't know much about gear beyond what I learned from Bigger Stronger Faster.

[skeletonrock]

Think you are probably right about the age thing being the biggest beneficiary, but I still think young guys still gain a lot from HGH or Roids or whatever.

[tantryl]

I say cut it off completely. If fighters aren't able to fight anymore, then have them retire.

I agree they should retire, but I'm not sure castration is the answer.

[cheeto101]

I agree they should retire, but I'm not sure castration is the answer.

Zing!

[ausmma]

TRT should be banned. If Sonnen wins against Silva there should be a asterix beside his name,because he wont have done it "clean' imo.

[tyrannor]

This was another interesting bit of bull**** to come out of Sonnen's last meeting with the NSAC. The commission asked him if he applied for and was granted a TUE for his previous fight against Bisping in Chicago. He said yes. At which point someone from MMAF (Ben Folkes I believe) tweeted that they asked the Illinois commission who told them they have no procedures in place for a testosterone TUE so this was a lie.

If this is true, NSAC should have gone after him hard.
I am surprised they didn't bother to cross check