Questions raised about Holm’s endorsement of supplement company
Holly Holm’s manager Lenny Fresquez: “Holly didn’t really use them so it’s not a big deal … I’m sure she didn’t use any of them. She might have taken a picture with one.”
One of the first sponsor’s in the UFC was Spanky’s XXX Playhouse. It appeared on Tito Ortiz’s shorts. Then the UFC prohibited adult and gambling sponsors, including Condom Depot. Guns and ammo sponsors followed. A sponsor tax was instituted, further drying up the market.
At UFC 193 this weekend, Holly Holm had a one-fight sponsorship with the supplement company Intel Pharma. The Texas-based company sells supplements marketed as containing drugs that are prohibited by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA). The UFC has secured the services of the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) to do PED testing of its athletes. USADA follows WADA rules and regulations.
A number of Intel-Pharma products that can be purchased on line from resellers are labeled as Selective Androgen Receptor Modulators (SARMS). These steroid alternatives are on WADA’s banned substance list.
One reseller, JAK Nutrition, sells intel-Pharma SARMS with a disclaimer:
This product is not for human consumption. Use this product at your own risk, for research, only after thorough chemical evaluation. This product is not a dietary supplement.?
In a worrisome twist, and perhaps a sign of how desperate the sponsorship market is, Holm’s manger Lenny Fresquez said he knew about it before hand.
Fresquez told USA TODAY Sports on Monday night that he and the fighter were aware before signing the sponsorship deal that Intel Pharma sold products containing banned substances.
The first question I asked them was how many of these products were banned, and they were up front about it,’’ Fresquez said. Holly didn’t really use them so it’s not a big deal …
I’m sure she didn’t use any of them. She might have taken a picture with one.
He said the sponsorship arrangement with Intel Pharma was a one-fight deal and that he and Holm have not decided whether to extend the arrangement.
My job is to get whatever the best thing is for Holly,’’ he said. Now that you’ve raised this concern we’ll definitely take that into consideration more carefully in going forward.
Landon Suggs, CEO of Intel Pharma, said his company stopped producing and selling the SARMs products no later than June — before the company started sponsoring Holm — and has issued a recall for such products.
The company disassociated from SARMs as part of a self-regulation effort in the industry, according to Suggs. But he said Intel Pharma continues to sell supplements containing stimulants that could be on the banned lists.
Overseeing the organization’s new anti-doping program, UFC drugs czar Jeff Novitzky told USA TODAY this year he has warned the UFC’s athletes about the dangers of supplements that could lead to a positive drug test.
One big concern that I have with our athletes, it’s one of the reason I went over to FDA in the latter portion of my career, was the sports supplement, dietary supplement industry,’’ he told USA TODAY Sports. I’m very concerned about it and the enforcement of it, especially now as it relates to our athletes.
Almost all of our athletes use some sort of supplement, whether it be a vitamin or protein or whatever, and I cannot advise them enough about how careful they need to be based upon what I saw in the industry, based upon how the FDA was regulating it or enforcing it. It’s a real dangerous area.
Holly Holm is a great, great fighter and by the account of everyone who knows her, one of the nicest, most stand up people in the entire sport. While training for the biggest fight of her life, she cannot reasonably be asked to make decisions about sponsor suitability. That is her manager’s job, and he didn’t do it.
A UFC champion should not be endorsing a company that sells products that require a disclaimer saying they are not for human consumption, use of which would get that very fighter suspended. Holm’s manger said he was going to “take that into consideration more carefully.” By “take that into consideration,” he hopefully meant never associate Holly Holm with commercially available banned PEDs ever again.
