Is anything sacred anymore? Every year, more and more professional athletes are being called out for their use of illegal or performance enhancing drugs. This past few months has been quite a public relations nightmare for the sport of mixed martial arts. From Jon Jones testing positive for cocaine, to Nick Diaz using marijuana, to the now infamous Anderson Silva performance enhancing drug scandal; the sport needs a turnaround and quickly.
Silva was quite possibly the biggest surprise as most never imagined the legend would be using anything of the sort. Sure, some would say all professional athletes use some method to reach their level of success, but as for the theory that every single one of them uses drugs of some fashion, well that I just don’t buy. There are still amazing people out there that compete in various sports and do not even consider using performance enhancers.
Anderson’s tests indicated two forms of enhancers; drostanolone and methyltestosterone. Just following the announcement it left fans wondering, what are these drugs? Drostanolone is typically utilized by those suffering from breast cancer as it inhibits the production of estrogen. Obviously, estrogen is what makes women more “womanly” per say, as it is a female hormone. It is an anabolic steroid that prevents water weight gain, or bloating while giving the user physical gains such as increased strength. Essentially, it doesn’t permit the testosterone to convert to estrogen at any point and it is commonly utilized by body builders and athletes as a cutting platform. It defines muscles with ease by draining any water from them, and can quickly get someone to their fitness goals.
Methyltestosterone is an extremely well known steroid to those in the weight lifting industry, and one that has been around for ages. Its sole purpose is to encourage aggression to catapult the highest possible power lifting goals. It’s thought if as kind of a dangerous tablet to take; they have a tendency to raise your liver enzymes, cause the user to develop acne, and retain water with ease. Which is all rather coincidental considering the drostanolone does the opposite of what this drug does, assumedly Anderson was advised to stack them together for the best possible outcome.
Of course there are always going to be several sides to stories like these, especially when it focuses around one of the most beloved fighters in all of martial arts history. Some are claiming he probably did this all along and this time he just failed a random drug test, whereas others assume he was only advised to take these drugs to aide in his overall rehab from the awful leg break he suffered in December 2013. We may never know as fans, but what’s most disappointing is that you can’t get a job as a cashier in most parts of the world without passing a drug screening to make minimum wage, but you can make a small fortune fighting professionally with a drug testing practice that only reveals the results after the fights have taken place. There simply has to be a better protocol in the way the state athletic commissions will be conducting drug testing going forward to have more uniformity and get the results back in a more timely fashion. We will all see what develops of the Silva madness in the coming weeks, but for now it sure doesn’t look too swell for the UFC that the top guys are falling off the wagon in mass numbers.
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