Do people seriously believe that there was such thing as an elite clean fighter pre USADA?

[Big Dawg]

The vast majority of this board can be compared to an adult that still believes in Santa. I'm not going to insult anyone for their beliefs, but people just don't understand, and the ones that do usually have bias towards their favorite athletes.

Anyone saying "___ has too much honor and integrity to cheat" is a damn fool. Honor doesn't give you a small window of opportunity in your life to make millions and create a legacy. Honor won't help you when theres always an infinite number of athletes that are younger, stronger, and faster that would kill their mother to sniff a Nike contract. If being an athlete is the way you decide to feed your family and keep a roof on their head, you're a fucking idiot for competing clean.

What Sherdoggers and just the general uninformed public spout all day around here is nothing more than an ignorant pipe dream. Ill be waiting for the flame. People here thats not a pro or ammy fighter, or a serious competitive athlete in their sport cant tell me shit but I cant wait for some moron to call me stupid and blow GSP or some poster boy for being "clean" and "honorable" because he's ignorant and doesnt know a thing.

You say you’re not gonna insult anyone for their beliefs and then go and do just that.

 

[Iron Wolf]

The vast majority of this board can be compared to an adult that still believes in Santa. I'm not going to insult anyone for their beliefs, but people just don't understand, and the ones that do usually have bias towards their favorite athletes.

Anyone saying "___ has too much honor and integrity to cheat" is a damn fool. Honor doesn't give you a small window of opportunity in your life to make millions and create a legacy. Honor won't help you when theres always an infinite number of athletes that are younger, stronger, and faster that would kill their mother to sniff a Nike contract. If being an athlete is the way you decide to feed your family and keep a roof on their head, you're a fucking idiot for competing clean.

What Sherdoggers and just the general uninformed public spout all day around here is nothing more than an ignorant pipe dream. Ill be waiting for the flame. People here thats not a pro or ammy fighter, or a serious competitive athlete in their sport cant tell me shit but I cant wait for some moron to call me stupid and blow GSP or some poster boy for being "clean" and "honorable" because he's ignorant and doesnt know a thing.

Close to 20 years Strength & Conditioning here. 7 years heavily involved in combat sports, 2 more years casually. Long-time involvement in the fitness community.

You are 100% correct.

 

[fightsnob]

I get that but it’s still tricky. I’d like to assume that legacy matters to a lot of these guys. Money is obviously the name of the game but I’d like to think a lot of these top fighters are in it to say they’re the best in the world with a straight face. Idk. I think a lot of guys are on PEDs. I think a lot of guys are also clean. I just think if it’s that lopsided, there would be a lot more busts is all, in a nutshell.

Legacy definitely matters to fighters, but I have been burned so many times by athletes fighting the good fight only to be juiced to the gills to the point where I don't think it's a strong enough deterrent. I think a good barometer of how lopsided it can be is the amount of times a fighter is tested before they test positive – on average. It is incredibly likely imo that fighters testing positive have been juicing for all previous tests. For Jon Jones this is more than 30 times, for Yoel Romero this is over 40 times. This should indicate that beating the test has around a 1/40 chance of failing (rounding the numbers and only using those two as a basis), meaning 2,5% chance of failing the test. And keep in mind these are people who are failing the test because of blood or even urine, which is easy to avoid by using masking techniques only detectable by biological passport analysis, which we know exists from other sports. If 2,5% is the percentage chance of failing the test it's perfectly reasonable that more fighters are not testing positive. I will say however that I also believe there are some guys who are clean

 

[linch]

The vast majority of this board can be compared to an adult that still believes in Santa. I'm not going to insult anyone for their beliefs, but people just don't understand, and the ones that do usually have bias towards their favorite athletes.

Anyone saying "___ has too much honor and integrity to cheat" is a damn fool. Honor doesn't give you a small window of opportunity in your life to make millions and create a legacy. Honor won't help you when theres always an infinite number of athletes that are younger, stronger, and faster that would kill their mother to sniff a Nike contract. If being an athlete is the way you decide to feed your family and keep a roof on their head, you're a fucking idiot for competing clean.

What Sherdoggers and just the general uninformed public spout all day around here is nothing more than an ignorant pipe dream. Ill be waiting for the flame. People here thats not a pro or ammy fighter, or a serious competitive athlete in their sport cant tell me shit but I cant wait for some moron to call me stupid and blow GSP or some poster boy for being "clean" and "honorable" because he's ignorant and doesnt know a thing.

Things are not that simple.
First of all, peds include a wide range of substances, and they are not all the same.
A fighter who is taking a diuretic to facilitate his weight cut is not the same as a fighter pumped to the gills with testosterone.
The reasons why some fighters are clean is because they're afraid of being caught and penalized, his legacy being destroyed, etc.
Some other fighters are clean because they have health concerns about steroid use, etc.
Rich Franklin didn't want to apply for TRT (it was legal at the time) and extend his career because he had concerns about having his natural testosterone production shut down, so he would basically have to be on trt for the rest of his fight.