UFC bantamweight titleholder Sean O’Malley and color commentator Joe Rogan recently had a discussion over the benefits of banned substances under USADA.
The introduction of USADA back in 2015 has been looked back on with varying opinions. Some are happy with the results and feel the agency has been effective in cleaning up the sport, while others believe the system is intrusive to the fighters. There have also been critics of how USADA handles failed tests due to tainted supplements.
Sean O’Malley & Joe Rogan Discuss Banned Substances
During a recent episode of “JRE MMA Show,” Joe Rogan had Sean O’Malley and his coach Tim Welch as guests. Rogan told O’Malley and Welch that while USADA bans supplements, there are still performance enhancers that are on the whitelist.
“There’s a lot of pre-workouts that are legal, there’s a lot of stuff that’s legal that is a hundred percent performance enhancing,” Rogan said. “I think what we have to keep people doing is doing supernatural levels of testosterone and growth hormone and things that allowed Vitor Belfort to become TRT Vitor.”
Rogan shared his belief that some substances should be regulated, rather than outright banned.
“I think we’re wrapped around this idea of cheating, but I think we should be wrapped around this idea of optimizing, and I think optimization should be the most important thing,” Rogan said.
The UFC color commentator then mentioned the benefits athletes would get during the recovery process, which led O’Malley to chime in with the following:
“Being able to recover and train,” O’Malley said. “I haven’t trained in the last few weeks and it’s crazy.”
Rogan hasn’t been shy in his feelings about USADA. In a separate podcast episode for “The Joe Rogan Experience,” Rogan said he feels the UFC should ditch the anti-doping agency. He thinks the testing should be done in-house.
Here’s the video of Joe Rogan’s discussion with Sean O’Malley and Tim Welch:
