UFC
UFC Interim Champ Carlos Condit comments on testosterone use in MMA - "It muddies the waters"
Jun 17, 2012 - 11:55:16 PM UFC Interim Champ Carlos Condit comments on testosterone use in MMA - "It muddies the waters"

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By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief

"I think it's a slippery slope, you know what I mean? You let guys start using testosterone and it's – where does it end? You know what I mean? I wonder, especially for younger guys, I know Frank Mir's a little bit older and of course your testosterone levels kind of dip as you get older, but some of these younger guys, you know, guys maybe in their late twenties and thirties using testosterone replacement therapy, I wonder, I wonder why is their testosterone low in the first place? And I, my theory is they may have been using something in the past, because when you use steroids, your body, after you get off has a hard time bringing yourself up to natural levels. I don't know man. I'm not going to judge anybody, but that's just, that's not – I got to where I am without ever ever using any performance enhancing drugs. I love MMA because of the purity of the sport and I think it just muddies the water when you start throwing stuff like that in there. And ultimately, it's not up for me to decide. That's for Athletic Commissions and I guess Dana White and the UFC brass to figure out what they're going to do with that. But, you know, personally, that's just, I have to just, you know, continue with what's worked for me, and that's just being clean."

-Interim UFC Welterweight Champion Carlos Condit weighs in on the testosterone replacement therapy conversation in an interview with GracieMag (transcribed by FightCove.com).

Penick's Analysis: With a growing acceptance of TRT in many circles of the MMA world, the divide on this issue will continue to grow. There are a lot of fighters who are clean athletes in this sport, and the continued allowance and acceptance of things like testosterone really don't seem right to them. At the same time, some consider TRT to be right along the lines of reconstructive surgery or other medical procedures that allow athletes to get back to a physical level they used to be at after suffering an injury. As Condit says here, though, the way TRT is being used definitely muddies the waters, and on the surface it certainly doesn't seem like it's anything less than fighters using a legal loophole for a performance enhancing substance. Still, it's something that's not going to come to an end anytime soon, and indeed it may continue to permeate as more fighters are named as TRT users.

[Carlos Condit art by Grant Gould (c) MMATorch.com]