Brazil taking first steps at PED testing in MMA
The cost of PED testing is generally prohibitive in Brazil, and the costs of PEDs are reportedly the main impediment to their use, rather than health or ethical concerns.
If you want to know what is going on in Brazil, the birthplace of mixed martial arts, then follow Guilherme Cruz on Twitter. Writing once again for MMAfighting, Cruz profiles the first tentative steps that Brazilian fight promoters are taking to try to deal with PEDs, and some challenging barriers in their way.
Only two promotions in Brazil test with the Brazilian AC (CABMMA) at present – Nitrix Champion Fight and The Hill Fighters. Wallid Ismael’s Jungle Fight plans to start shortly.
Nitrix CF promoter Isais Pele caught two PED users already, one via confession, and one after he ran from the test.
“We started doing tests recently, and three fighters already came to me saying they were worried they would be caught,” said Pele. “Unfortunately, most of the fighters do steroids. One doctor called me once, asking for me to reconsider (testing a fighter), but I’m not the one in charge, that’s the athletic commission. The commission picked him randomly to do the test, but it was already out of his system. Unfortunately, Brazilian athletes have this misconception and want to do these steroid cycles.”
Another promoter, Otavio Duarte from Watch Out Combat Show, disputed the notion that most fighters do steroids, saying the are too expensive.
“It’s hard to test fighters in Brazil because of the price of the drug tests,” said Duarte. “When I was looking at this in the past, I think it was 1500 reals (US$600) per athlete for a basic exam. When I had a meeting with CABMMA, they wanted to do the tests. (CABMMA medical director Dr. Marcio) Tannure later came up with a pretty basic exam for 700 reals ($250), but that was too basic. They didn’t accept it because of the costs.
“Testing fighters would cost a lot more than what fighters actually make. I’m a promoter for 10 years and we know that fighters make no money when they are starting their careers. No non-Olympic sport does drug testing in Brazil. It’s too expensive. We know it would be the ideal to do it, to at least random test a few fighters, but unfortunately that’s the reality of the sport. Even in the United States, nobody drug tests their fighters except the UFC. It’s hard to pay for everything.”
So that is reality of MMA in Brazil right now. One promoter says most fighters are taking PEDs, and another says the one that aren’t can’t afford it.