Dana White rarely stays neutral on a topic related to the sport he’s spent the later part of his life building, and until recently, TRT was one of them. In a statement recorded by mmaopinion.co.uk.
“TRT has become a way for people to cheat,” said Dana. “If this is what your normal level should be and then you have guys training at huge levels (of testosterone) for their whole camp then tapering down to get to normal levels before the fucking fight, that’s cheating, and I don’t like it anymore.”
Fighters have been applying for Theraputic Use Exemptions to undergo testosterone replacement therapy for a while now. I’m not sure when this whole issue began, but it seems people are finally getting fed up with doping in MMA.
“There are plenty of guys in the UFC that are naturally gifted and talented fighters,” said Dana. “If you’re testosterone levels are too low then you’re probably too old to be fighting, stop fighting! “
The issue of TRT is unrelated to age or the health of the athlete, regardless of what they say. Just pay attention to the process if you don’t believe me.
It’s fairly safe to assume that any professional athlete in his late twenties/early thirties, is probably not in dire need of steroids to survive. So why does anyone believe a professional fighter, when he claims to need steroids for medical reasons, and as far as timing is concerned, it’s always right before his fight?
It’s nice to see this issue painted in an honest light for once. So the sport has a steroid problem. Now it’s time to proactively search for a remedy.
“We can test everybody,” said Dana. “I’m telling you right now, if you are using testosterone replacement therapy, get ready motherfuckers because we’re going to test the shit out of you.”
It will be interesting to see where Dana plans on going from here. These are very bold statements, even for him, and if he really feels this way, they might be expensive statements as well.
“Some things recently have lead me to believe that people are fucking cheaters, people are taking good things and turning it into a bad thing and if you want to play those games then guess what, we’ll play!”
“There’s so much shit out there. Right now there’s banned substances and and we follow the regulations and we’re going after the banned substances, TRT was never one of them and they would be tested leading up to the fight to make sure the levels are good. If you’re on TRT now, you’re going to wish you weren’t. We’re going to test the living shit out of you.”
“You have guys that go in there 100% natural with his talent and natural ability, against someone on TRT, basically someone thats on steroids. I’m absolutely 100 percent against TRT and now I’m going to start fighting it 100 percent with the athletic commissions and I want nothing to do with it.”
Watch Chael Sonnen compare modern medicine to steroid use in the video below.