Straight-talking UFC welterweight Matt Brown appeared recently on the Three Amigos Podcast for a wide-ranging interview, including a discussion of PED use in mixed martial arts. Brown wants a lifetime ban for fighters who knowingly take PEDs. He acknowledges that some fighters may fail for inadvertent use via a tainted supplement, and said that he does not believe Tim Means knowingly took PEDs. He argues though that the result would be worth the cost.
“I’ve said it before, USADA is a good thing for the sport,” said Brown, as transcribed by host Stephie Haynes for BE. “I just wish the suspensions were steeper. I think it should be a lifetime suspension for first time offenders. You get caught, you’re done. Go find another sport. If it were a lifetime ban, I bet none of the people that have been caught would have taken anything.”
“If they find out it was a tainted supplement, and you can legitimately prove it, then you don’t get a lifetime ban. That said, there may be a martyr. There may be someone that gets screwed by that system. There’s always going to be a problem, but I guarantee you, if you implement a lifetime ban, that problem gets solved real quick.”
“You’re responsible for what’s in your body. It’s that simple. I really don’t know why they allow them to use that as an excuse.”
“If they were using my system, I don’t think anybody would be taking anything. Maybe one or two people get popped that maybe shouldn’t have, and that’s unfortunate. When I’m dealing with my kids, sometimes they both get in trouble. I don’t know which one did it, right? So that means one of them might be getting in trouble for doing nothing. That’s a part of life.
“I’m confident of what I put in my body. I know, for sure, that I’m not putting no tainted anything in my body. I know that I’m not taking anything that I’m not allowed to be taking. I just called Jeff Novitsky the other day to make sure a little saline injection was going to be okay. Prolotherapy is what it’s called. That’s the thing, I did my due diligence. It’s not a complicated thing to do, and I feel like there’s really no excuses for this stuff.
“A lot of people think I’m crazy right now, but when someone gets seriously injured or paralyzed, or God forbid, someone dies, and there’s the possibility that the combatant was on steroids, then people might start agreeing with me. That’s not fantasy. That’s a legitimate potential scenario.”
