The greatest wrestler in USA history, Dan Gable, famously won an Olympic gold medal without a single point being scored against him. And he was back training the next morning. He also had a unique outlook on steroid use.
If I knew I was going to wrestle in the finals of the Olympics against a Russian and I knew he had been training specifically to beat me, but then I knew the guy was on steroids, that would HELP me, said Gable to Sam Sheridan, in ‘A Fighters Mind.’ Whereas some might think ‘oh he’s cheating,’ for me you didn’t pay the price. You’re not as committed as I am. It’ll tear him apart. He may be strong, but all I have to do during that nine minutes of wrestling is loosen one single wire in his brain, make him do something that isn’t perfect, and he’ll fall apart.
Besides the health effects, what you lose when you use steroids is mental toughness. The key to victory is that the strongest mind wins. You can get physical strength with steroids, but you lose the mental toughness from brutal hard work. Steroids hurt mental toughness by serving as a crutch.”
UFC heavyweight Derrick ‘The Black Beast’ Lewis recently expressed a similar opinion, during a recent appearance on MMAjunkie Radio.
I’m always working on myself, said Lewis, as transcribed by MMAjunkie. I really don’t care about my opponent. His strong suit or whatever, or his weakness, I’m just worrying about myself. I feel like as long as my condition is on point I don’t believe anyone can beat me. I don’t care who that is.
I don’t care if the guy is juicing or not, it really don’t matter. That stuff don’t help, you know. It just makes you look good. But I believe steroids don’t give you that extra boost when you go out there. First of all, I believe the guys taking it, they’re really insecure. So, that’s the only advantage I see. Just being insecure about it and making yourself feel good. I guess they think they have that extra boost.”
The idea is not absurd. A study of fighters who failed PED tests found that the offending fighter lost a majority of the time.
