Nine months is not enough

The use of Performance Enhancing Drugs in mixed martial arts is damaging the sport every bit as much as it damages opponents. Two of the biggest draws in the game – Chael Sonnen and Wanderlei Silva – have both retired after becoming embroiled in drug tests.

Far more importantly though, MMA is a hurting game. The use of PEDs in powerlifting means some guy lifted a heavier weight. In baseball it means some guy hit a ball farther. In MMA it means one guy hurt another more. And the hurt extends not just to broken eye orbits and teeth, it potentially extends into the brain. CTE robs a human of what they are, and what they will be.

And PEDS hurt the love of the game. Vitor Belfort had one of the great runs in the sport’s history, winning three in a row, via knockout, via headkick, at an age when most fighters are retired. But Belfort pissed hot on it.

PED use in mixed martial arts has to be stopped.

The UFC in 2015 is going to begin widespread, randomized, out of competition testing. This has already caught an extraordinary percentage of fighters in the few cases it has been done so far, including the above mentioned cases of Wand and Chael.

Big problems require big solutions. At present, the punishment if you get caught is not enough.

A first time offense often receives a nine month suspension. That is not enough.

When Royce Gracie tested so high for Nandrolone that it didn’t register on the laboratory’s calibrator, the California AC suspended him for the duration of his license, some ten and a half months. After initally offering a flat denial, Gracie eventually was dismissive, saying he only fights once a year anyway.

In 2013 there were 386 fights in the UFC. There are approximately that number of fighters under contract, so each fighter fights, on average, twice per year. Ideally fighters fight three times per year, but it doesn’t work out like that in practice. Twice a year is of course every six months, so a nine month suspension is actually a three month suspension.

That is not enough. Big problems require big solutions, and making a fighter wait an extra three months is not a big solution.

If there is going to be a nine month suspension, it should be nine months beyond the normal period between fights, or 15 months. Second suspension should be double that, or two and a half years. Third strike you are out.

A witch hunt however is in the interests of no one. There are ambiguous cases where a doctor’s prescription inadvertently contained a prohibited substance and so on. In those cases, the tradition nine-month suspension may be appropriate. But in cases where a fighter knowingly takes banned PEDs like anabolic steroids, HGH, or EPO, nine months is a slap on the wrist, in a sport where the athletes can take a shot. Further, the sanctions for recreational drugs should be less, not more. No one should be getting a 15 months suspension for the presence of marijuana metabolites, or any months.

The UFC is doing the sport a tremendous, tremendous, tremendous service by instituting randomized out of competition testing. Now the punishment has to fit the crime, or the millions of dollars that will be spent are not being used efficiently, and that is bad business.