Kimbo, Shamrock make case for PED use

When Ken Shamrock, 51, posted a picture on his social network, the hardcore fanbase suspected that some combination of the training, the prayers, and the vitamins was at work.

KEN SHAMROCK @ShamrockKen

Tonight’s training was great. Ready for this fight.

However, Shamrock said emphatically that he is all natural.

Hard work and genetics, said Shamrock to Tristen Critchfield for Sherdog. I think if you’ve watched me throughout my career when I tried to go and pack on weight I’m not as lean. When I don’t worry about packing the weight on and I just worry about my cardio, my speed, then I get leaner. And that’s just how my physique has been throughout my career and it’s no different now. I think the difference that you’re seeing now is I’m putting in harder work.

It’s been the toughest and the most difficult thing that I’ve ever had to do in my career up to this point. Most of the time when I go into a gym and I get ready to train I’m the Lion King. I’m pretty much the guy that can handle anybody. ’ve been away from the ring for four or five years and coming back I believe has really tested my character and tested my training and everything that has to do with getting ready for a fight. The humility, the humbling of going into a gym and starting out not really knowing where you’re at and having to put yourself through different types of training and realizing for the first time in your life, not only are you not the Lion King in the gym, but you’re the bottom of the barrel. You’ve got these young kids that you’re rolling with that are just throwing you around. All of a sudden you’ve lost that strength and that confidence you had going in there.

My ability in the ring was something that was just a natural thing for me, but I also put the hard training and extra time on top of it, which made me great. I didn’t have that anymore, and I had to go out and dig and fight and scratch for every single inch every single day not to get my ass kicked in the gym all the time. Now that I’ve done that I’ve put myself back where I want to be. I’m not the greatest fighter in the gym; I’m not the Lion King of the gym, but I can hold my own now.

Both Shamrock and opponent Kevin “Kimbo Slice” Ferguson, 41, were subject to extra PED testing and extra tests due to their age, by the Missouri Office of Athletics, under the direction of Tim Lueckenhoff, who also serves as the president of the Association of Boxing Commissions. Both fighters passed all tests.

However, both fighters expressed the contrary opinion that Performance Enhancing Drugs should be allowed in mixed martial arts. Shamrock has voiced the same opinion previously, but Kimbo had thus far not voiced his thoughts on the issue.

“The best way that I could describe this is like putting gas into a race car that’s regular gas,” said Shamrock to Marc Ramondi for MMAFighting.com. “It’s not gonna perform to its maximum level, because of all the pressure you’re putting on the engine and pistons, the carburetor and the gas lines and everything that goes into making that thing go fast and perform at a high level. Those things would blow up and blow out if they don’t have what they need to push that big strong engine. And the body is the same way where you’re constantly pushing it beyond the normal level of a human being.”

“I believe it should be left up to the responsibility of the fighters to get a doctor. That puts you under a doctor’s care. The doctor is responsible for having you at a regulated level like they test now for levels. Have you at a regulated level, at a safe level that whoever does the testing can deem safe for everybody. Doctors are responsible for athletes being at a certain level, it takes the pressure off the commission, takes the pressure off the organization. The responsibility lies upon the fighter and the doctor to be on the levels they need to be. And all the commission has to do is test them and make sure they’re at the levels they need to be.”

Slice agreed that PEDs are useful in the sport.

“It’s not average to take your body through two or three hours of training, beating, banging, punching, weights,” said Ferguson “Eating different, sleeping shorter, waking up to compete. Your body goes through some s— The ligaments, the bones, the tendinitis. That’s some brutal s— the body has to go through. The commissions, we should allow everything to be under control at a certain level to keep the sport good, to keep the fans wanting to see their favorites and paying millions of dollars. Yeah, f— yeah. I’m all for that.”

“I don’t care what he has to do. I want him to do what he needs to do to be at his best. I want to beat Ken Shamrock at his best. I want to knock him the f— out at his best. If he beats me, I want him to beat me and say he was in the best shape of his life.

“I wouldn’t care. I don’t want the fans to care. I don’t want the commissioners to care. I don’t want no one to care. When you’re an entertainer, you’re a sports entertainer — from football, to basketball, to track runners — we’re not sitting at a desk. We’re doing something with our bodies and some athletes may require a little bit more sports medicine and that’s different from the average. No, I won’t knock it. I wouldn’t knock it, I wouldn’t cry about it. I’m a fighter by heart, I’m a fighter in my blood.”

However, Ferguson went on to say emphatically that he himself is clean, and always has been

“I was always afraid,” said Kimbo. “I have high blood pressure, my mom is a diabetic, my dad is a diabetic. I just had natural energy for days. I felt like if I would have took anything it would have f—ed with me. I would have been crazier. Could you imagine if I got on cocaine? S—, if I got on cocaine I’d be a maniac, man. The only thing I could do is fucking smoke weed. I could smoke weed, I could drink a little liquor. At times, drinking what I used to, I thought I was invincible. So any other drug, they would have to put me in a f—ing straitjacket and lock me up. I don’t even drink no more, I don’t smoke no more. I try to be as clean as I can be now. I’m a natural maniac with a switch and I can control myself. I like it that way.”

The sport meanwhile has moved in the opposite direction. Most recently the California State Athletic Commission suspended Bellator’s Mike Richman for two years, following his first PED test failure.

Kimbo Slice fights Ken Shamrock in the main event of Bellator MMA 138 on June 19, 2015 at the Scottrade Center, in St. Louis, Missouri.