It seems like Middle Easy is the only media outlet with the courage to say it. Mixed Martial Arts is better with steroids.
PEDs make the sport safer, with less injuries and less fight cancellations. Fuck USADA. It’s absolutely ludicrous that my old ass father can use better supplements than professional fighters. And after watching years of Pride FC and Bellator, I think we have scientifically proven ‘roided fighters are getting anyone killed.
So let’s just be honest with ourselves. Fighters on the juice are better than fighters not on it.
In the spirit of honesty in MMA, let’s count down the top five fighters that were much better on steroids. This list is purely speculative. We have no idea if any fighter on this list has ever done steroids. We can provide absolutely no proof whether these fighters have or have not ever used any illegal substances.But we have embraced the Nick Diaz philosophy in MMA (AKA “All you motherfuckers are on steroids“).
5.) Erick Silva
Before the start of USADA testing in July of 2015, Erick Silva was riding high on his hype train. Brazil’s biggest young prospect, this handsome fucker was stealing hearts around the world. Alternating wins and loses, with the losses only coming to the biggest names in the division, Erick Silva was poised to be a huge part of the future of the sport. It looked like all his promise was just coming together when Silva threw a beating on Josh Koscheck that was so bad Koscheck decided to hang up the gloves. And then, the horror of year-round PED testing reared it’s ugly head. Since then he’s gone 1-4 and will likely be cut from the UFC roster with another loss.
Let’s watch Erick Silva knock out Luis Ramos in his debut at UFC 134 in under a minute. Feel the power of Brazilian pharmaceuticals!!!
4.) Renan Barao
One day you are a monster, the next you are slipping in a bathtub during your weight cut, knocking yourself unconscious. Such is the cruel nature of this sport without proper supplements.
“The Baron” went almost ten years without a loss until he ran into the buzz saw that is TJ Dillashaw. After losing his title, Barao faced the biggest challenge of his career when USADA testing was implemented. Since then, he has gone 1-4 including losing his rematch for the title to TJ Dillashaw. From headlining PPVs as the number one pound-for-pound fighter in the world, to missing weight and getting wrestle-fucked by Aljamain Sterling on the prelims. That’s how you know you’ve been USADA’ed.
Let’s take a trip down memory lane, and enjoy some weird house music, as Renan Barao throws some spinning shit on Eddie Wineland that helped him defend his interim Bantamweight title.
3.) Johny Hendricks
Once upon a time, “Bigg Rigg” was the scariest Welterweight to ever grace the octagon. His power at 170 was a thing of whispered awe. Johny Hendrick’s 10-1 run to title contention included some of the most downright frightening left hands MMA had ever seen. During his first chance at the title, Hendricks was robbed against Georges St. Pierre. He basically retired the Pride of Quebec Canada when he turned GSP’s face into hamburger meat. In his next fight (also for the title), Hendricks even managed to wade through a storm of Robbie Lawler punches (Nick Diaz voice) to become champ.
Unfortunately, the back-to-back wars he had with Robbie Lawler would be his high water mark. After a win over Matt Brown, USADA hit Johny Hendricks like a Mack truck, and things were never the same. A 1-5 record since the implementation of the strictest drug testing in the sport (along with missing weight a gang of times) has made Johny Hendricks relevance in the sport nearly disappear in the last few years. The once unstoppable phenom is now fodder for rising contenders with no path to the title anywhere to be found.
But let’s not forget the absolute destroyer that Johny Hendricks once was. Enjoy him sending Jon Fitch flying across the cage with a left hand from hell.
2.) Alistair Overeem
While The Reem’s career didn’t fall off a cliff after the implementation of USADA like so many of the fighters on this list, we all know what the deal was. Old school fans watched Alistair Overeem swell up like a balloon in the Macy’s Thanksgiving party during his time with Pride FC. During his early career, Alistair undergoes one of the most rapid body transformations ever in professional sports. We watched a skinny young Middleweight morph into The Ubereem, and it was magic to behold.
Sure, the USADA era has thined out Overeem’s physique a bit, but the real tragedy here is that The Ubereem was ever forced to leave Japan. Imagine if we had allowed Alistair Overeem to stay in his natural habitat. He could have gotten Bob Sapp large. Chalk it up as another awesome thing the UFC ruined. Sign…
Let’s watch The Ubereem just blast away on Todd Duffee to become DREAM’s Heavyweight champion.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bVDZxwQpqLQ
1.) Vitor Belfort
2012-2013 era Vitor Belfort may have been the greatest martial artist of all time (Don’t @ me). His three consecutive head kick knockouts in Brazil of Michael Bisping, Luke Rockhold, and Dan Henderson stand as one of the greatest runs in the sport’s history. And it was soaked in TRT.
Maybe no one in MMA took better advantage of the TRT Era quite like Vitor Belfort. After getting face kicked by Anderson Silva, it seems like Belfort made a decision to push this steroid shit to the limit. In his late replacement fight against Jon Jones, Belfort looked like a goddamn Adonis. TRT-Vitor was shooting up testosterone like it was going out of style and head kicking legends dead. Which was a situation that seemed to be working out for everyone, until the Nevada State Athletic Commission (of all people) had to bust Belfort for wildly high testosterone levels when they tested him before the Fighters Only Awards. No fighter ever attended the awards ceremony without compensation again. And sadly for those of us who love caged violence, the witch hunt was on.
In short order, therapeutic use exemptions (TUEs) for Testosterone would be completely banned by the NSAC. And maybe a year later, the UFC would institute USADA. Along the way, TRT-Vitor became Dad Bod Vitor, and a small piece of MMA soul died.
In many ways, you can blame TRT-Vitor for ushering in the entire USADA plague into MMA. Vitor Belfort juiced up was just too beautiful and terrific to last. Like Robert Frost said, “Nothing gold can stay”. But in that small window where he existed TRT-Vitor was the most brilliantly vicious and violent fighter ever seen. RIP TRT-Vitor.
