The Doggy Bag: Overtime at the Lab Edition

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I don’t want PEDs in sports, but I haven’t been openly against them, either. All I have ever wanted as a spectator is an even playing field. Anderson Silva himself said in October that a positive, confirmed steroid test should be the end of one’s fighting career, and that’s a penalty he will now try to dodge at all costs. When will the penalties in this sport finally match the bluster of all the fighters? I hear other fighters talking about two or three positive tests resulting in a lifetime ban from the sport but never see anyone push for this change. At the end of the day, they’re hypocrites just like the rest. -- Jack from Manchester

Brian Knapp, features editor: They say the first step towards solving a problem is admitting you have one. MMA, in general, and the Ultimate Fighting Championship, in particular, have not yet arrived at this conclusion regarding the performance-enhancing drug epidemic present in the sport.

The UFC was left with a considerable amount of egg on its face following the conclusion of UFC 183, as news broke that the most dominant and successful fighter in its history had been flagged for anabolic steroids in an out-of-competition drug test administered by the Nevada Athletic Commission. The soon-to-be 40-year-old Silva, not surprisingly, has contested the results. I’m all for due process being allowed to run its course, but if the results of the test hold up under the scrutiny that is to come, then “The Spider” will have forever soiled his once-pristine reputation. I’m not naïve enough to believe that those who get caught in this web do so after overstepping their bounds for the first time. Dopers dope.

The UFC has hemmed and hawed around the subject of performance enhancers for years, shifting the burden of responsibility to athletic commissions and passing the buck whenever possible. There is only one solution to this problem: Penalties must be stiffened -- substantially. Risks have to outweigh the rewards. Start with a one-year ban for first-time offenders, who must also forfeit their entire purse from the fight in question. Any subsequent offenses should result in a lifetime ban. As baseball and other major spectator sports have discovered in recent years, you cannot overestimate the value in having a clean sport. I think the buying public, for the most part, wants to believe what it is seeing is real, that competition is taking place on a level playing field. No one can say MMA is currently living up to those expectations, and the UFC, as the global leader in the business of cage fighting, must share in some of the responsibility.

Those involved in MMA -- from the fans, the promoters and the media to the athletic commissions and the fighters themselves -- have a decision to make. If the sport truly wants to rid itself of the scourge of PEDs, it has to get serious about its methods, and it has to be willing to face some serious consequences. Perhaps we lose an Anderson Silva or two or three along the way, but is the short-term penalty of such a loss not worth the long-term health of the sport?

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