Rogan on possibility of Fedor taking PEDs in Pride
Joe Rogan: “Did he stop lifting weights? That’s possible. Or, did he stop taking whatever the f@$% he was taking? That’s possible too.”
The two leading candidates for the Greatest of All Time in mixed martial arts are Anderson Silva and Fedor Emelianenko. Fedor never failed a test for performance enhancing drugs in his entire career. Silva too never failed a test, until of course he did, when he was subjected to random, comprehensive, out-of-competition testing.
A number of fans speculated – and it is purely speculation – as to whether Fedor had used PEDs at some point in his career. It must be added that Fedor was fighting in Pride, which was unregulated, and in fact at times explicitly had in contracts that PEDs would not be tested for. So if he was using PEDs, he was breaking no rules.
By way of example, Rogan uses PEDs, under the care of a physician.
“Now I take Human Growth Hormone and testosterone,” he said on 10 March 2011 at the 24:10 mark on the Joe Rogan Experience #88. “I go for hormone replacement therapy.”
It does of course complicate matters that if Fedor was using PEDs (which there is not proof of), he was in the hurt business. Rogan is not trying to knock anyone out for a living, he is just living the way he wants to.
On a recent JRE, Rogan said the change in Fedor’s physique between fighting Kazuyuki Fujita in 2003 and Antonio Silva 2011 was not likely to be natural.
Guest Aus Muay That fighter John Wayne Parr asked if Rogan reckoned Fedor was on something
“Until you know for sure, you can’t say you know, but I would imagine the possibility is high,” replied Rogan as transcribed by Jesse Holland for MMAMania. “He looked big. Go back and look at what he looked like against Fujita. He was a thick motherf—ker. He didn’t look anything like he looked when he fought Bigfoot Silva. So what happened? Did he stop lifting weights? That’s possible. Or, did he stop taking whatever the f— he was taking? That’s possible too. He’s obviously in the pocket of some very wealthy people who would want him to do well at all costs.”
In an interview with Jason Naware for FanSided, Emelianenko denied he had ever done PEDS.
“He likes to do PR scandals,” said Emelianenko. “As always, I’m ready now to test and always will and always would’ve been clean.”
“Actually we did get tested for steroids but everyone just assumed that because no one tested positive that there were no steroid (testing) … it gave me strength to know that my opponent may have had to use something while I put in all of the hard work and long training trying to be a better fighter which is why, with God’s help, I was able to win whether my opponent was on steroids or not.”
(2:33:35 mark)