According to Larry Pepe from Pro MMA Radio, former UFC heavyweight champion Frank Mir is the latest fighter to apply for and be granted a therapeutic use exemption for testosterone replacement therapy.
Pepe revealed via Twitter a conversation with Nevada State Athletic Commission executive director Keith Kizer in which he was informed that Mir had been deemed a worthy case for a TRT TUE prior to challenging Junior dos Santos for his title at UFC 146 last weekend.
NSAC’s Keith Kizer confirmed to me that Frank Mir met all requirements for & received TUE for TRT for UFC 146 fight against JDS.
Mir joins the likes of Chael Sonnen and Dan Henderson, among others, to have jumped on the testosterone replacement therapy wave, a topic of contention in the sport.
Somewhat ironically, testosterone was the reason Mir got the title shot in the first place, but not his use of it. Original contender Alistair Overeem was suspended and forced out of his bout against dos Santos when he registered an elevated testosterone-to-epitestosterone ratio on a surprise pre-fight drug test. It was learned at his hearing with the NSAC that his levels had been altered by an anti-inflammatory injection which contained testosterone that was administered to Overeem for a rib injury. Overeem claims he never knew that there was testosterone in the mixture.
Mir fought dos Santos for the belt last Saturday and was defeated by second-round TKO.
Editor’s Note: ESPN’s Josh Gross reports Mir’s May 27 test was below NSAC’s required 6:1 T/E.
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I’m sure everyone will crap all over Mir for this despite the fact he was still under the required 6:1 ratio which means he’s perfectly legal with or without the exemption .. Overeem was waaay over lol.
This is the building block to end the legitimacy of mma
I completely agree with you. The beginning of the end, so to speak.
I think this is one of those fine lines. Guys like Frank Mir and Dan Henderson, who have put their bodies through a hell not one of us will more than likely understand, should be allowed to get TUE for TRT.
I just hope that for legends like these men, the focus is more on the strength of their hearts to want to compete, vs the natural process of their muscles deteriorating with age, and injury.
Well by that logic, then every fighter should be allowed TRT cause they ALL put their bodies through heII, right?
i’m not sure how to feel about the TRT. the older fighters do put their bodies through hell and it does catch up to them. but idk it still doesn’t feel right to me does anyone know if Randy Couture was ever on the stuff because he was older than Mir and Sonnen but he did great if he used it i could reconsider but if he became world champ at 40 without trt everyone else should too.
I personally think this is BS. Deal with the natural state of your aging body, or retire. I can’t believe how easily the commission will grant exemptions.
I also can’t believe how easy they were on Overeem for his offense. The way they handle PED’s is ridiculous.
And yet, they should let anyone fight on weed without any penalty, despite it being banned in competition by every major sport, amateur and professional.
Be consistent, not a pothead.
Do you ever have anything productive to add, or do you just spend all day hunting for posts you don’t agree on, so that you can come up with a sarcastic, holier than thou response? I don’t appreciate you trying to attack me personally by calling me a pothead. You don’t know me, so don’t make assumptions.
My comment is on testosterone use, as is the article. Where do you see any reference to pot here? If you want to make this about pot, in some weak attempt to discredit my comment on the use of testosterone, then you should be a bit smarter about it. Both drugs have totally different effects on the body, and nowhere near comparable impact on a fight itself when used in advance of the event. Without commenting on whether smoking pot multiple days in advance of a fight is ok or not ok, I will say that there are huge differences between the two, and they should not be treated with consistency.
Unlike you, I have a pretty decent memory. And since a guy who qualifies for TRT should be FORCED to retire (in your mind) rather than undergo a legal, medically-accepted treatment while admitted potheads should be free to fight without penalty (again, in your words – http://mmafrenzy.com/28648/mad-about-diazs-suspension-dont-blame-the-commission-opinion/#comment-223734 ), is pretty on-topic.
If a TUE for TRT should not be allowed, a TUE for pot should also NOT BE ALLOWED. It’s simple logic. Allow TUEs, or don’t. You can’t be in favor of them when it suits your wishes and against them when it doesn’t.
They absolutely should be treated with consistency. Why? They are both (allegedly) medically-supervised and medically-necessary to make an otherwise abnormal human more normal. So a guy who has low testosterone should be placed at a disadvantage while a twitchy pot smoker should be cool? No. If Diaz (with multiple positive tests) gets to apply for a TUE for smoking pot, then there is no valid reason a guy like Mir (with NO positive drug tests in his past….or even his present) shouldn’t get one.
There is no grey area here. Effect on the body isn’t the issue – medical necessity is.
If you get a doctor to sign off on it, it’s legal. Whether anyone likes it or not. What can you do?
What makes MMA fun to watch? Fighters you know getting title shots. If Mir is fighting, I’m watching. Sure, there’s younger and somewhat entertaining fighters out there but do you really get excited to watch a fight with someone you don’t really know much about?
For me the answer is no. I could care less what the older fighters have to do in order to get that top fight. It’s them that built the sport and entertain us. I’m glad that Mir got his chance to make his body as good as he possibly could so that Junior could beat him up at the best level he could make himself be.
Lesnar was a bad ass fighter to watch. On his road to being a hulk there is now question how he got so big. We watch to be entertained. Entertainment is best when the best come to fight.
TRT is just a way to cheat …….. legal cheating . Hey , its not steroids its TRT and we all need it now because we are not that good using our natural gifts . So lets embrace cheating and just legalize steroids so this kind of obvious runaround with TRT can be called crap and not just twisted talk to let people cheat ..
TRT in combat sports = cheating .
Like the saying goes: “If you aint cheating, you aint trying.”
I seriously doubt the NSAC is going to allow fighters to “cheat legally”. Everybody judges but I believe most of us don’t understand what exactly this means. I think most people just assume this means that fighters are just injecting testosterone into their body the way weight lifters do with steroids, shooting their test off the charts, but logic would tell me there is no way the biggest fighting commission in the world will blatantly just allow that. I would say it’d be good for all to get some education on it one way or another.
Devin , my wife is a nurse and to put it simply ……. they give you testosterone shots to replace the stuff you lose naturally . It is meant to make you your old self but to much can make you even better than before …..
I can’t believe how blind everyone is to this, it’s in the name “Testosterone Replacement Therapy” we cannot help the fact that with age our bodies looses testosterone, it’s the way of life. I agree if you cannot deal with it and fight on the retire, why should any older fighter have any sort of advantage over a young up and coming fighter would doesn’t need TST’s and to make things worse it’s some of my favorite fighters that are doing it now.
Interestingly enough, Nate Marquardt no longer needs TRT because it is too much of a hassle with the commission!! If he doesnt need it now then did he ever? This trt is bullsh!t and for those saying you have to treat it the same as weed is nonsensical. Testosterone is a steroid and it absolutely improves performance, the only way it is fair is to let everybody do it. Then it becomes who is willing to put their body at the greatest risk. Get rid of it.