GSP: PEDs are like bringing a knife into the cage

Former UFC welterweight champion Georges St-Pierre spoke recently with Neil Davidson for Canada’s The Globe and Mail about performance enhancing drugs in mixed martial arts. The conversation was of course precipitated by former UFC middleweight champion Anderson Silva failing a PED test.

I feel very sad for Anderson Silva, said GSP. I don’t want to talk about one individual, I want to talk about the system. The system is a big problem in the sport of mixed martial arts … It’s something that I believe the UFC and fighters should confront and deal with it. Because if you don’t deal with it right now, it’s going to get worse and worse and worse.”

I believe the athletic commission is doing a much better job now that it did in the past because they do random testing. But they still have a lot of room for improvement.

GSP was not impressed that the NSAC did not get the results for Silva’s pre-fight test for 22 days, after the fight with Nick Diaz.

The fight should be canceled because it’s cheating, it’s a biological weapon that you have,” said GSP. “If I fight someone with a knife and the promoter and the organization know I have a knife. I’m bringing a knife into the fight, they should not let me fight because I’m carrying a weapon.

A performance-enhancing drug is the same thing, it’s a biological weapon. It’s an advantage that you have over your opponent that you should not be able to compete with. Because you put the health of the competitor in jeopardy.

We’re not playing golf, we’re not racing, we’re fighting. Every time we fight we put our lives, our well-being in jeopardy.

St-Pierre said he has completely recovered from knee surgery last year, has kept training, and if he ever fights again, will insist on random drug-testing by an independent and competent organization with the Voluntary Anti-Doping Association as an option.