Ben Fowlkes putting Vitor on blast.
When screening therapeutic-use-exemption applicants, most state athletic commissions ask if they've ever tested positive for any banned substances. Nevada includes that question as part of its criteria, but, according to NSAC Executive Director Keith Kizer, answering yes does not necessarily disqualify an applicant. As Kizer told me via email this week, "The burden on the applicant would be even higher," but that application could possibly still be approved.
This is where we get into a major problem with the whole testosterone-replacement therapy issue. Vitor Belfort is a great example. We know he's tested positive for performance-enhancing drugs in the past. We also know that abusing certain performance-enhancing drugs can damage a person's endocrine system. So even if we accept Belfort's claim that now, as a 35-year-old man, he does suffer from abnormally low testosterone levels, how do we know he didn't do it to himself? And if he did do it to himself, why should we give him permission to inject testosterone now to erase the consequences of his own decisions? How is that fair to other fighters who have never used PEDs?
That's a question that's not being adequately addressed right now. When we're talking about whether to allow professional fighters to inject themselves with steroids – and please, before you try to argue that synthetic testosterone isn't a steroid, go look at the World Anti-Doping Agency's list of prohibited substances, right there under part B of "Anabolic Androgenic Steroids" – the cause has to matter. We all saw Belfort when he was in his early 20s. No way that was a guy who suffered from naturally occurring hypogonadism. It would take a damn miracle for a man with abnormally low testosterone to get that big and strong, not to mention compete at that level as a professional athlete. So if we accept that he didn't have the condition then, but does have it now, what caused it? Age? His lifestyle? Past drug use? Years of weight-cutting and hard training and sustaining blows to the head? I don't see why any of those potential causes should be reason enough to allow him to fight other men for a living while under the influence of synthetic testosterone.
Getting too old to compete clean? Retire. Taken too many hits to the head? Retire yesterday, and go see a doctor. Messed up your own hormone production with drug use? Either make do with what you got, or else retire and go give talks to high school athletes about why they shouldn't do what you did. All of those seem like better options for our sport and its fighters than sanctioned performance-enhancing drug use.
