The Emerging Steroids Problem in the UFC

This may come as a surprise, but in a sport where perhaps the most muscle bound and pain-hungry athletes on the planet compete, there seems to be a bit of a steroids problem. The UFC has had a string of positive tests in the past several years, including many of its prominent fighters.

Most recently, heavyweight title challenger Shane Carwin tested positive after his failed title bid against Brock Lesnar. Carwin had won all 12 of his previous fights within the first round, including all four of his previous UFC matches via TKO or KO. Not exactly as if he could pull the baseball player's excuse that it "doesn't really help" on this one. No, I'd say that when you are paid to hit other guy in the face, and you do that exceedingly well at 265 lbs of pure muscle, that the steroids helped you out pretty damn much.

Carwin was both feared and respected as one of the best heavyweight mixed martial artists in the world. Unfortunately for the UFC, and all of MMA, his positive steroids test greatly diminishes what he and many other fighters in the sport have been accomplishing. Of course, he's just one of many MMA fighters to have tested positive, and just as with boxing, it seems that most people don't care too much.

Let's do a quick rundown of the who's who of steroid users amongst current or former UFC fighters: former UFC lightweight champion Sean Sherk, MMA legends Royce Gracie, Ken Shamrock and Kevin Randleman, former UFC heavyweight champion Tim Sylvia, Ultimate Fighter stars Stephan Bonnar and Chris Leben, former UFC light heavyweight champion Vitor Belfort, well known fighters like Josh Barnett, Kimo Leopoldo and Hermes Franca and on down the line. All of those names have had positive steroid tests in the last five or six years.

Clearly something needs to be done to reverse this alarming trend. Until it is, you have to at least question that the next time you see an absurdly jacked MMA fighter in the UFC octagon coming close to tearing another guy's limb from his body, that maybe he had a chemical cocktail or two helping his cause. I'm sure the majority of UFC and MMA fighters are clean, but when a dozen of the sport's bigger names test positive in a short timeframe like that, then the black cloud has officially settled.

Sources:

Steroids in Boxing, Why Don't People Care?; Another UFC Fighter Tests Positive for Steroids; Ken Shamrock Tests Positive for Steroids; UFC Fighter Flunks Drug Test; Shane Carwin Linked to Nationwide Steroids Conspiracy; Steroid Scandal Can Destroy What UFC Has Built