Frank Mir on TRT, Nate Marquardt off TRT, Legend thinks about it, Confusion ensues
Marquardt claimed he needed TRT for the betterment of his mental and physical health. He even shed tears. Fast forward a year after his firing. Marquardt to The MMA Hour's host Ariel Helwani on Monday that he no longer needs TRT and it led to too much paperwork from commissions. The general perception is that while fighters can manipulate their testosterone levels to be lower than they are, once you get on TRT, you have to stay on it. You rely on it the rest of your life because your body can't naturally produce much testosterone, so you have to rely on the synthetic stuff. But Marquardt is apparently a miracle medical wonder or there's a lot more to TRT than we actually know.
--UFC legend and former middleweight champion Rich Franklin, 37, also discussed TRT on The MMA Hour, saying he kicked the idea around, but is a bit weary of it because you have to rely on it your whole life once you're on it. Unless you're Nate Marquardt. He said his testosterone levels were lower, but could be attributed to old age. Hey, at least we have an honest guy here.
--On Monday, NSAC director Keith Kizer and UFC Hall of Famer Randy Couture gave their take on the TRT phenomenon and its positive/negative effects on the sport on HDNet's Inside MMA:
--UFC president Dana White has said before that TRT is legal and can be allowed as long as fighters are at normal levels. As we covered above, it's hard to keep tabs on fighters abusing the therapy during training, but White has confirmed the UFC is looking into tougher and random drug testing. That may not completely solve the problem of abuse, but it's certainly a step in the right direction.
--Lastly, for more information on TRT, check out Spike's MMA Uncensored Live's excellent feature on this growing issue:
Useful links relating to TRT:
