UFC commentator and BJJ black belt Joe Rogan talked about PED use in MMA on his latest Joe Rogan Experience podcast:
“The UFC and MMA in general is a steroid epidemic,” said Rogan as transcribed by David St. Martin for MMA Fighting. “They’ve started this really stringent testing and everybody is getting popped. They’re just getting popped left and right. It’s one of the things fighters have been saying for a long time, that everyone is on steroids, a huge percentage. Give a number 50, 60 [%]. Whatever the f— it is that are on steroids.”
“Anderson was coming back from a broken leg and he tested positive for metabolites. It was leaving his system, a very trace amount. If that was the case, it could very well be that he got on some steroids to heal up quicker. Because what steroids do, is they allow you to recover quicker.
“So if he’s 39 years old and he broke his f—ing leg, you’re talking about a long-ass period of recovery. Or you take steroids and you recover in nine months instead of 15 months or fill in the blank. That could be what’s going on, but the reality is it’s illegal. You can’t do it. If it takes you 15 months, the excuse can’t be, ‘I’m going to give you some illegal drugs so you heal quicker. This is the only reason you take these drugs. Don’t worry about it, you’ll be fine.’ No, you’re never allowed to take steroids.”
“This thing that Hector Lombard got popped for, I’ve never even heard of this s— before. It’s apparently a designer anabolic steroid, so what I think that means is that it’s one of these steroids that’s been concocted to get around the rules.
“The test are getting way more sophisticated, so who knows? Lombard must have thought that he couldn’t get in trouble for this s—. I don’t understand it.”
“The idea of a normal training camp, which is, fighters will workout sometimes three times a day. Maybe they’ll run and do sprints in the morning, then they’ll do some kind of strength and conditioning in the afternoon. Then they’ll do wrestling or Jiu-Jitsu at night. Then they’ll vary. The next day they might do kickboxing in the morning and running in the afternoon, then weight lifting at night. But you’re talking about working out three times in a day because you have all these different skills you have to work on.
“You have to work on your wrestling, kickboxing, jiu-jitsu. There’s not enough time in the day, and there’s not enough time to recover. So that’s when Dr. Feelgood comes in.”
“The reality is, this whole steroid epidemic, one thing we have to recognize, the use of steroids is less than 100 years old. There’s always been substances that people have taken, but the actual use of anabolic steroids in human beings is relatively recent in human history.
“I think as time goes on, they’re going to create more powerful and crazier s– and it’s going to get to the point where you’re going to test negative because you’re not on it anymore but your body will forever be changed.”
