Kennedy: We’re in the Barry Bonds, Sammy Sosa, Mark McGwire era

UFC Hall of Famer Randy Couture recently said that use of Performance Enhancing Drugs are not rampant in MMA. Taking a contrary view is UFC middleweight Tim Kennedy, who appeared recently on Fight Opinion Radio.

I’m this outspoken proponent against [use of PEDs],” said Kennedy as transcribed by Zach Arnold for Fight Opinion. “I’ve begged and pleaded, even tried to take a stand saying, ‘hey, I’m not going to fight unless I’m randomly blood tested.’ And, um, guess what? I haven’t been randomly drug tested yet! I asked the commission if we could, for this fight me and Yoel both be tested, and we got ‘your request has been received and we will look into it.’ Right now, I could be using every single steroid on the planet. Right now, I could have been injecting myself this morning and I would still be clean by fight.

Today, I get up to do go strength & conditioning and I’m on the roller. Everything hurts. I wanted to come back and sit in an ice bath. But I’m proud that it hurts. I’m proud that I didn’t inject something in my body last week or I don’t feel the pain that’s associated with training. You know, yeah, I did it.

Vitor Belfort and this King guy that just tested positive or the guy that just beat Bubba, I don’t even know how many guys in the past three weeks have pissed hot recently. All of them don’t know what this feels like right now. And I like that. That makes me proud and I also know that gives me something that they don’t have. That gives me an element, that gives me an advantage. Yeah, they might be a little bit faster. They might be a little bit stronger. They don’t have heart because this is how you get heart. When you like try to walk up the two stairs to get in your front door and you have to pause on the first one and look at that second star and go, oh man, I don’t know if I’m going to be able to make it right now.

I get so much crap from everybody. Like, shut up pussy, why don’t you just use it yourself and actually have an exciting fight? It’s non-stop relentless, especially from Vitor fans or Chael Sonnen fans. Listen, I get it. They’re fun to watch. But so was Sammy Sosa and so was Barry Bonds and Mark McGwire. They almost destroyed the sport of baseball. Those three dudes alone almost ruined baseball. That’s where we are right now in the sport. We’re in the Barry Bonds, Sammy Sosa, Mark McGwire era where it’s just rampant, crazy use of PEDs. And Mark [Bocek] that just retired, you know, he’s saying up to 90%. I said around 30%. Okay, fine, we’ll split it, like split the difference. That’s crazy! That is a huge problem. And we’re not hitting a ball out of a park. We’re hitting each other in the head. This is a little different. So the standards should be different and it’s not. It’s worse. Something’s got to give.

Tim Kennedy fights Yoel Romero at UFC 178 on September 27th in Las Vegas.

Support Ranger Up, the combat sports apparel line that sponsors Kennedy, and a number of other fighters.