Should steroid usage be legal in MMA?
Published by Zach Arnold on July 14th, 2010 in Current Events

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When Ken Shamrock on Mike Straka’s Fighting Words show on the HDNet channel a few weeks ago and admitted that he had used steroids before, his critics used the admission as ammunition to try to destroy the credibility of his career. Those who don’t care about the issue of performance-enhancing drugs in sports largely yawned and moved on. However, there was a lot of blowback from people in and out of the industry towards Ken about the comments he made.

MIKE STRAKA: “What did the fans want, though? They want bigger and better.”

KEN SHAMROCK: “They want homeruns, baby. They want people jacking them out of the park but then when they find out about it they want to stick their hand in the sand, ‘oh how bad, that was stupid, why’d you do that? You’re crazy. Don’t let them in the Hall of Fame!’ It’s like, let’s point the finger because if we don’t point the finger at somebody else, we have to point it at ourselves because… we knew. So, nobody wants to takes responsibility, but everybody wants to see it. And that’s the way it’s always going to be and it always will be. Someone is going to take the fall, period.”

MIKE STRAKA: “You think steroids should be legal?”

KEN SHAMROCK: “Absolutely. Absolutely.”

Facing tremendous heat for his remarks, as truthful as they were inartful, Shamrock clarified his stance during an interview with The Fight Nerd last week. Shamrock said that his words were taken out of context (how?) and that he thinks steroid usage should be legal amongst fighters in Mixed Martial Arts. He also addressed criticism he received for fans thinking that he was blaming them for why guys use steroids in sports.

“You know, I’m sorry if that’s the way it came off to point fingers at fans because that’s not what I was doing. What I was doing was make an awareness of people understanding their sports. When you get into a situation like baseball or basketball or football, boxing, and you see a guy come out of college and you see how much he grows and how big he gets and I’m not saying the average fan, you know, I’m not talking about the person who sits home and watches the game because they really, they’re just watching it and being entertained. I’m talking about from the media, I’m talking about from the sportswriters, I’m talking about from the hardcore fans who hear all the rumbles behind the scenes, who know all the stuff that’s going on, and they stick their heads in the stand like and then they’re shocked when this stuff comes out. I’m not saying that it’s not the athlete’s responsibility at all, no way. But what I’m saying is when something like that comes out and then you have people going, ‘oh my God, I can’t believe he was doing that!’… that to me is wrong because to me most likely and I’m not saying in all cases, but most likely people know what’s going on.

“Yeah, I mean I’m not saying it’s the responsibility of the fans because it’s not, I mean they’re watching the game and they’re having fun and they’re all enjoying it and there’s absolutely no responsibi8lity on them. The athlete and the reporters, they don’t even have a responsibility on this at all. But by no means do when somebody comes up dirty, you have an idea about what’s going on and you never step up and said anything do you jump on the bandwagon and be a part of that program. Because that’s what happens is guys who don’t want to take a stand on it because they’re afraid that they might piss somebody off but then once somebody else takes a stand on it and goes, you know what’s that’s wrong, we’re going to test, they start testing, they catch a few people, they start going after them, then these other people who knew all along what was going on start jumping on that side because now it’s politically correct.

“I do not and absolutely do not believe that steroids should be legal. My intention on that whole conversation was I thought that steroids should be CONTROLLED. CONTROLLED, not legalized, because I said even in the statement that if you allow it to be legal people are going to get bigger, faster, stronger, and somebody’s going to get hurt.

“[Athletic commissions] test levels in the body. There’s levels that are extremely high, that are very unsafe for an athlete and there’s levels in the body that are extremely safe and that help recovery in injuries. So, if you’re going to go ahead and test the levels in an athlete’s body, then you can go ahead and test the levels in a athlete’s body which is safe, which is good for recovery, which is good for their health, which is good for their living. They’re not going to be coming out of the sport all beat up and not being able to walk or not being able to think, you know they’re going to be able to recover and be healthy, be rejuvenated, a thing called age-management. Which is a big thing in society right now, which helps your test levels in your body and your hCs levels in your body and your HGH levels in your body to come back up to a healthy level so your body can recover, you can feel alive again, your body feels good. These are things that are safe, medically proven that are safe to help you have a healthier and a better life after the age of 50 or 60.”

There’s two parts of Shamrock’s argument that should be focused on – his accusations against the media for gutless and his idea that steroids should be allowed to be used, yet somehow not be legal.

On the first matter, Ken is right. MMA media writers hate covering scandals because they are afraid that they will lose paying gigs (think: $50-100 article type deals) and because it’s just too much heat for not enough of a reward in return. I saw this first-hand with the yakuza scandal that destroyed PRIDE. Nobody wanted to touch the story because they saw no benefit in doing so until the promotion actually started to collapse and then the bandwagon jumping started on reporting the story, acting as if everyone knew what was going on all along.

Ken’s argument here about the media is that they know what’s going on with PEDs in MMA, who’s using, and who’s not, and they aren’t talking because they afraid that they will lose sources for future news stories and could lose paydays with outlets that demand political correctness. He’s exactly right on all accounts, but Ken’s problem is that he has done a terrible job of directly conveying that message. So, instead of getting his point across, he’s having to deal with putting out fire after fire with fans, writers, and those inside the business. He’s become a pariah.

And yet, he’s right about media writers knowing some fighters who are users and then feigning shock when someone gets busted. I’ve seen several articles where writers have noted publicly that they’ve had fighters tell them who’s using or not using and how to get around drug tests but yet no names are ever mentioned and then once somebody gets caught, the writers speak in a way in which they assume their readers knew all along who they were talking about.

Is the media complicit in the way fans view the athletes in Mixed Martial Arts who use or don’t use steroids and growth hormone? I’d say yes, to a degree.

In the larger context of what Ken Shamrock is arguing about, do people care about the issue of steroids? As I noted in previous articles, fans do care about the issue of drug usage but only when it involves someone that they hate and can use the issue as a crutch to whack said athlete over and over and over. (Think: Alex Rodriguez. Rarely do you hear about David Ortiz and steroids, despite the fact that Ortiz recently won the 2010 State Farm Home Run Derby in Anaheim, California.)

Whenever I bring up the issue of steroids in MMA, Most of my readers say their eyes glaze over, ignore what’s discussed, or just don’t care. Those who do care feel very passionate about it, but right now they are in the minority. People just want to be entertained.

So, what about allowing the usage of steroids amongst fighters on a ‘controlled’ level as Ken suggested? It’s hard for a state or Federal body of government to allow something to be tested for and yet have it be illegal on the books. You have to legalize steroids before you can allow such usage to go on in a ‘controlled’ manner. The argument of ‘controlling’ the usage of steroids and growth hormone sounds libertarian enough, but the problem is that this is fighting. It’s a violent, dangerous sport. By inviting such steroid usage to be 100% controlled, you are forcing those who aren’t on the sauce to get on it. Unless you want to create PED and non-PED divisions in MMA, it’s tough to see why one should be for the usage of steroids in a controlled manner.

What Ken Shamrock did with his admission of using steroids is stir the pot. He was honest about the topic. It does raise the stakes overall for those of us who are anti-doping in our beliefs and challenges us to come up with an argument that doesn’t sound too moralistic or preachy. After all, fans watch fights because it’s fighting. If they want morality, they’ll go to Church every Sunday. And yet, doping is a very important issue in sports because the health and well-being of so many athletes is on the line and in the combat sports world, the difference between those who are using and those who aren’t using can literally influence life or death situations in and out of the ring. One look at the professional wrestling industry can give you all the ample evidence you need on the impact of rampant drug usage.

Zach Arnold is the owner and editor of FightOpinion.com.