Dana White is against TRT – after being for it, against it, and for it again
Hold onto your syringes, friends, because the TRT winds are shifting again.
Who knows where we’ll be when the gust dies down, or if anything will have changed at all. But if you’re a UFC fighter right now, let’s just say it might not be the ideal time to pay a visit to that “anti-aging†clinic you heard about from the guys down at the gym.
UFC President Dana White is all for a change. Or at least, that’s what he says now that the Association of Ringside Physicians has called for a ban on therapeutic-use exemptions (TUEs) for testosterone-replacement therapy (TRT).
“The doctors came out and said they want to ban it?†White said to the Associated Press on Monday. “Well, that’s the answer.â€
Funny how, just a few months ago, the answer was “testing the s–t†out of the UFC fighters who were on it. It was as recently as November that White couldn’t stop raving about the “new†Vitor Belfort, who he declared to be “f—ing awesome†after his most recent TKO win over Dan Henderson (another TRT user) in Brazil. In that same press conference, he also lashed out at those who questioned whether Belfort could fight in the U.S., where he had yet to receive an exemption for synthetic testosterone.
“Vitor can fight in the United States now,†White said. “There’s no reason why he couldn’t fight in Las Vegas, no matter what [former Nevada State Athletic Commission Executive Director] Keith Kizer says. He should be allowed to fight in Las Vegas. It’s ridiculous.â€
Again, that was November. That was a little more than two months ago. Now White says he hopes Nevada won’t give Belfort a TUE for his planned fight with UFC middleweight champion Chris Weidman in Las Vegas. Now he wants synthetic testosterone out of the sport entirely.
Presumably he felt differently when the UFC granted an exemption of its own to Antonio Silva for a fight in Australia this past month. There was no commission to blame for that one. That was the UFC acting as its own regulator, doing the same things White now says he hopes regulators won’t do.
To be fair, it’s not the first time White has changed his mind on TRT. He was against it before he was for it before he was against it. Although before that he may have been for it, at least when he wasn’t against it. It’s tough to say, since his position seemed to change along with the seasons.
“I don’t like it, and I’m going to fight it,†White said of TRT this past February.
In August of 2012, however, he lauded TRT as “absolutely 100 percent legal.â€
“As sports medicine continues to advance, this is one of those things where every guy’s testosterone level starts to drop as they get older, and this is basically sports science now where they can bring it back up to a normal level,†White told FOX Sports. “And I think it’s great. It’s absolutely fair. It’s legal.â€
Again, that was then. It was “absolutely fair†in 2012. This week, according to White’s comments to the AP, the “whole TRT thing, I think, is unfair.â€
Sure seems like a man as powerful and influential as Dana White could really do something about this issue. You know, if it wasn’t for that Dana White guy fighting him every step of the way.
At least the Association of Ringside Physicians has staked out its position. Dr. Ray Monsell, the chairman of association, told MMAjunkie in an email this week that the statement was the result of a motion following a presentation by board member Dr. Margaret Goodman, of Voluntary Anti-Doping Association (VADA) fame, at an association meeting in Las Vegas in 2013.
“We are hoping that the statement raises awareness of the often unspoken and ignored dangers of unsubstantiated TUEs, issued for non medical reasons,†Dr. Monsell wrote, adding that the “prevalence of supposed hypogonadism in the MMA community appears far higher than in the normal age controlled population, and unless there is specific medical evidence the diagnosis of genuine hypogonadism may be unsubstantiated, allowing a given athlete an unfair advantage.â€
In other words, exactly what many doctors and endocrinologists and fighters and fans and media members have been saying for years, only now – at least for this one fleeting moment – the UFC seems to agree.
So what next? As usual with the thorny issue of performance-enhancing drugs, the UFC seems to be waiting for “the government†to act first.
The thing is though, it has this big title fight coming up, and the challenger will reportedly ask the Nevada commission for permission to use this substance that the UFC would like to see banned. And White, the powerful UFC president who only recently called for the governor to step in and “fix†the NSAC, would prefer that they tell Belfort that his TUE is no good here. This, after very recently claiming that there was “no reason†why a synthetically enhanced and totally awesome Belfort shouldn’t be able to fight in Las Vegas.
But say the NSAC does deny Belfort’s application for a testosterone exemption. What then? He earned this title shot while on TRT, which White now says is “unfair.†If the Nevada commission declines to give him a TUE, does he still get that fight? And if so, will the commission be willing to do the enhanced testing that might actually catch him if he decides to use testosterone anyway, which he may very well be tempted to do since he’s been on it for over a year now and who knows what his body will do if he goes cold turkey right now (or in a few months, once testing becomes more of a threat)?
And what are we supposed to say to those guys he knocked out while on the “unfair†TRT that he maybe didn’t need and shouldn’t have been given permission to use? I guess… sorry? Hope your brains are OK? Hope that loss didn’t wreak too much havoc on your careers?
These are difficult questions, but that’s what happens when you get into the performance-enhancing drug business via half-measures, as both the state athletic commissions and the UFC have done. They’re both complicit in creating this mess, and now they want an easy way out of it.
At least, they say they do. At least for this one moment in time. Give them a few more months to think about it, and who knows what they’ll want.
