The UFC’s Joe Rogan spoke to Matt Roth of MMA Mania and had a lot to say about the recent ban of testosterone replacement therapy by the UFC and the Nevada State Athletic Commission:
“It’s interesting and I think that it’s a good thing for MMA and a good thing for athletics period. There’s too many ways to get around it. There’s too many ways that people can say that they have an issue,” Rogan said. “There’s too many ways to lower your testosterone and then be an unscrupulous person and go in and get an exemption and then take it all throughout your training camp and have an unfair advantage in your recovery time.
“I think that there’s most certainly people abusing it. It sucks because people who aren’t abusing it and actually need it, like Bigfoot (Antonio Silva). You want to talk about a guy who absolutely probably needs it, how about a guy who had a tumor in his pituitary gland and has a real health issue. So if you want to think about guys who really need it, they’re being punished. There are a few guys who I’m sure really do need it.
“But, in my conversations that I’ve had with doctors who prescribe testosterone to people with brain injuries, there’s two types of people that need testosterone because of contact sports. There’s most certainly people that get hit in the head too much and their bodies stop producing testosterone correctly.
“The other is weight cutting. Weight cutting affects it as well. It kills your whole fucking system, man, and if you do it a lot over a long period of time, it can wreak havoc on your entire body,” he said. “But, there’s also people who have legit diseases.
“The question is: Should those people who have legit problems and not producing enough testosterone — should they be allowed to receive a use exemption? Was it a hasty thing to completely ban it or should they have cut way back and said to people ‘you’re 33 years old, why do you need testosterone?'”
