AS NEWS EMERGED last night that Mike King, the man Cathal Pendred defeated at UFC Fight Night 46 in Dublin last month, had failed his post-fight drug test, it served as the latest worrying remainder of what is turning into a genuine problem in top-flight MMA.
Some may ratioanlise the use of steriods or Performance Enhancing Drugs (PEDS) as the manifestation of an athlete’s desire to win at all costs. That, perhaps, their ultra-competitive drive compelled them to use whatever was in their means to succeed. But at the end of the day, it’s nothing more than cheating.
Mike King’s testing positive for the anabolic steroid nandrolone saw him join the ranks of a considerable group of fighters who have digressed in this fashion and, in turn, harmed the sport they claim to love.
Here are some of the guilty parties:
Vitor Belfort
UFC middleweight No.1 contender Vitor Belfort has been something of a serial offender throughout his career and has become the unofficial poster boy for the use the Testosterone Replacement Therapy (TRT). In 2006, after to losing to Dan Henderson at Pride 47, the Brazilian tested positive for 4-hydroxtestostereone. Despite recieving the drugs from a licensed doctor, the Nevada State Athletic Commission banned him for nine months and issued a fine $10,000.
In 2013, Belfort won three straight fights with stunning head-kicks, however, all of those victories were in Brazil, where the use of TRT was completely legal. Thus, many felt he had an unfair advantage. Nonetheless, he was granted a title shot against champion Chris Weidman, only to pull-out when Nevada State Athletic Commission banned the use of TRT. He would later reveal that he failed a random drug test due to elevated testosterone levels.
Belfort has subsequently been cleared to fight Weidman at UFC 181 in December, but he will closely monitored by the commission in the build-up to the fight.
Chael Sonnen
Another proponent of TRT and longtime verbal sparring partner of Belfort’s, Sonnen first tested positive for elevated testosterone levels after his unsuccessful middleweight title challenge against Anderson Silva in 2010. His levels spiked at 16:9:1, while the average man’s is 1:1. After a long, unsuccessful appeal process, Sonnen returned to fight for both the middleweight and light heavyweight crowns, neither outing ended well for him.
In June of this year, he was released by Fox Sports as an analyst and by the UFC, after he failed multiple drug tests. He has been banned from competition worldwide for two years.
Alistair Overeem
Having made his name as a light-heavyweight fighting in the K-1 Kickboxing promotion and Japan’s Pride FC, Overeem decided to re-invent himself as a heavyweight. In a suspiciously short space of time, he went from a lean and ripped 14.5 st to a monotonous beast, resembling a B-Movie bad guy.
Naturally, many had their misgivings how he managed to acquire such an imposing physique with nothing more than weights and some protein shakes. Ultimately, they were proven right, as the Dutch fighter failed a pre-fight drug test for his UFC Heavyweight title bout with Junior Dos Santos, for which he received a nine month ban.
Stephan Bonnar
Having been a stalwart of the UFC for close to a decade, Bonnar was given the opportunity to fight the world’s greatest fighter, Anderson Silva at UFC 153 in Rio, Brazil. Though the fight was of little relevance, but it represented one last big payday for Bonnar, prior to his imminent retirement.
Silva, despite being a weight class below the American, gave a masterclass and finished him in the first round, with a performance straight out of the Matrix. This was made even more impressive by the fact that Bonnar would test positive for the anabolic steroid Drostanolone. He retired immediately, but was still indicted into the UFC Hall Of Fame last year.
