Issue 128

May 2015

Gegard Mousasi

36-5-2

Former Strikeforce 205lb champion

YES

Four years is maybe too much. I don’t know what the Olympic rules are exactly, but fighters are trying to make a living and it’s not easy to make a living as a mixed martial artist. If you ban someone for four years you have a good chance they will never be able to come back. They’ll have no choice than to go and do something else and that’s not good. You’re going to lose a lot of fights and a lot of fighters with such a harsh penalty for, perhaps, a first-time offense.

Johny Hendricks

17-3

Former UFC welterweight champion

NO

I don’t believe it’s too harsh. If you’re doing PEDs for like baseball or track and field then you can’t hurt anybody. But if you’re competing in something like football, boxing or mixed martial arts you could hurt your opponent. The more muscle you have, the more pop you have. If a fighter did steroids just imagine how big and strong they could be. But what if they damaged an opponent enough they ruined their career? Why take the chance of doing that to them and ruining your own life?

YES

“4 years is more or less your average fighter’s career done with. Bit harsh I would say.”

@drewevans89

NO

“No, fighters shouldn’t do them, end of. If you do, you deserve everything you get. It’s cheating, simple as that.” 

@geemacca

NO

“Potentially but at the same time you need to apply a strong penalty on taking PEDs so that the cheating stops.” 

@Burb5

NO

“4 year bans won’t be implemented until July so plenty of time to get clean. No excuse for getting caught after that.”

@Dhuffy67