Luke Thomas likens PED use to superior genetics in terms of 'fairness'

PED's always skew the natural order to some extent for 3 reasons:

1. Not everyone is willing to use PED's.
2. Those who use PED's aren't going to be on identical doping programs.
3. People respond differently to PED's even if they are on identical programs. There are multiple studies that prove this.
Good point.

Further making the case that allowing PEDs won't miraculously even some kind of unfair 'natural' playing field.
 
Being born with major physical advantages over the vast majority of the population that would aid in a particular sport is the definition of unfair.

What you think should result from that is another story.
 
Amazing how stupid even smart people can be sometimes


The flaw in his logic is actually pretty simple. He's reducing everything to "fairness." So his argument is that sport is inherently unfair because some are more naturally gifted than others, therefore allowing people to use PEDs doesn't change the balance of fairness.


That argument hinges upon the assumption that if PED use isn't unfair, it's OK.


Well, fairness isn't the only consideration. A much bigger consideration is the purpose of HUMAN sports, which is to determine, via competition within defined rules, how well a HUMAN can perform athletic endeavors.


PEDs make people more athletic than they could naturally be. An obvious corollary to this is that the very best human athletes will be made superhuman by the use of PEDs.




I have no interest in seeing superhumans fight. I'm sure a bear could beat up any human who ever existed, but I have no interest in watching bears fight. All I want to see are the best human fighters, whatever that looks like, whatever that means, so be it. When you start putting PEDs in, all you're doing is making something real into something fake, making something interesting from a human perspective into a spectacle with no relevance to the human body and it's natural capabilities. You may as well watch bears or robots fight at that point.

Plus, I don't want the youth to grow up in a world where the only option for those who want to compete in athletics is to use PEDs. I also completely agree with those who say the risks of fighting are greater when people use PEDs -- that's just obvious.




So there are a litany of reasons beyond mere "fairness" to ban PEDs. Fairness is one of the shakiest reasons, actually -- so Luke has, completely unwittingly, only managed to tear down a straw man. He's simply missing the point of sports and of PED regulation.


But even fairness is a valid concern, as someone else pointed out, some people won't use, some people can't for various reasons, some will be willing to use more and assume more risk from abuse, and some people will have access to better shit than others. So even fairness is a valid concern -- I don't mean to discount it, I'm simply pointing out the problems with hinging your entire argument about PEDs on that one aspect.
 
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That's actually his point though, that we aren't born equal, and that basing the testing on a notion of 'fairness' is flawed to begin with, due to the almost extreme disparity between a guy like Yoel Romero and the average guy. He also explains how someone who, for example, has a lot more money, can do things like fly in training partners, use hyperbaric chambers to train, hire the best nutritionist, etc, while his less economically blessed opponent can't. Is that fair?

I don't even think he's against PED testing, but he's just systematically attempting to refute the standard arguments for USADA-level testing.

He should move to a different country. Our country was founded upon the belief that "all men are created equal."

That being said, is there any other industry besides sports in which using technological advances to become the best one can possibly be is a crime? All other industries use all the latest technological advances to their benefit. All people besides athletes use the most modern advances in medical science to improve how their bodies function and to live the best possible quality of life. That's exactly what TRT was invented for - to improve the functioning of mens' bodies as they age so they can have the best possible quality of life.

Sports seems to be the only industry where they want people to not have access to the advantages modern breakthroughs in medical science could give them. They're living in the past. They want to pretend all these advances in medical science don;t exist and it punish anyone who uses them. Anabolic steroids are illegal so it makes sense to ban them for UFC competition. TRT is legal, so banning it for people who could benefit from it makes no sense from a medical standpoint.
 
What's even more astonishing is that Luke is by far the most vocal advocate of fighters' rights in the MMA sphere. Yet he apparently sees nothing wrong with clean fighters being robbed of wins, money and career attainments (to say nothing of physical damage) by dirty fighters on PEDs.

I can only assume this inconsistency is somehow connected to his number one squeeze, Jon Jones.

In his hysterical loyalty to Jon Jones, Luke is actually replicating the relationship Bobby the Brain Heenan had with Ric Flair, c. 1991/2.

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yeah he really made a fool of himself on the mma beat the other week.

kept insisting that there were 'no scientific studies' to indicate that an athlete could inflict more head trauma to an opponent if he was on steroids.

If The UFC genuinely cared about lessening head trauma they'd outlaw strikes to the head. They already outlaw strikes to the throat, the neck and the back so it's not without precedent. Strikes to the body can be very effective and submission holds are a way to definitively end a fight. Making the opponent say "I quit" is the most definitive ending in sports.
 
Ive had to stop listening to Luke, hes reached batshit crazy levels recently...

trouble is, hes like a mini jesus with his followers, they believe what hes saying..
 
he's like that liberal that want equality at all costs, even though we were born unequal and that's just part of what we are
Yeah this is true. You don't have to like it but some people are born superior. Whether you believe it's a gift from God or otherwise it's just fact.

Like that Angel Heredia interview where he talked about sprinters. Tim Montgomery 3 nanograms testosterone, Maurice Greene 9 nanograms. Is it unfair that Greene is essentially 3x the man? Yeah, it is, but life isn't fair.

The sooner you accept and come to grips with that the better your life will be.
 
No, it's an excellent equivalency.

Clean fighter A competes with his genetically-defined talents.

Honest physicist A works with his genetically-gifted intelligence.

Dirty fighter B uses chemicals to compensate for his relatively inferior skills.

Cheating Physicist B cheats on experiments in order to compensate for his weaker intellect.

It doesn't matter whether the PEDs are being used for preparation (or 'study') or execution (assuming the differences between those two tasks are even measurable). What matters is the person who cheats in order to compete, and Luke's attempts to liken this to genetic ability.

NO, youre missing the point, and probably too stubborn to argue the actual point-

if it were ALLOWED, IT WOULDNT BE CHEATING.

the question is should it be allowed?

to correct your example, Physicist B would become A BETTER PHYSICIST as a result of taking a serum, thereby allowing him to complete experiments on equal footing with a superior intellect.
 
NO, youre missing the point, and probably too stubborn to argue the actual point-

if it were ALLOWED, IT WOULDNT BE CHEATING.

the question is should it be allowed?

to correct your example, Physicist B would become A BETTER PHYSICIST as a result of taking a serum, thereby allowing him to complete experiments on equal footing with a superior intellect.

I am weeping at your education.
 
he then started banging on about the failures of commissions to regulate the sport properly and protect people from bad referees - as if that is even connected to the separate issue of PEDs.

I think you missed the point of what Luke was saying here. I didn't listen to this podcast yet, but he went over it on the MMA beat last week.

Luke was simply saying that PED's have never caused a death in MMA and are highly unlikely to do so. Basically no one will die from getting punched in the face by someone on PED's.

Then he brings up refereeing because it is much more likely that someone will die in MMA from a ref stopping a fight too late...than from the winning fighter being on PED's. Even if both fighters are juiced to the gills, the ref is the one that should step in and stop someone from being beaten to death as their whole job is to protect the fighter who can no longer defend themselves.

So Luke wasn't trying to connect the issues, just rather saying we all should be addressing referring/judging before PEDs.
 
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Every woman is not born equally beautiful.
So let's make it a fair game with the help of a plastic surgeon.

xtLdfIo.jpg


Just do not participate beauty pageant.

Is this good analogy to that situation?
 
I am weeping at your education.

its ok.

i imagine you also cry when considering Bo Jackson's athleticism.

if i were bored, we could have a spelling bee.
 
Every woman is not born equally beautiful.
So let's make it a fair game with the help of a plastic surgeon.

xtLdfIo.jpg


Just do not participate beauty pageant.

Is this good analogy to that situation?
Those Korean plastic faces... Still get me everytime. Damn you Korean girls for doing that to me.
 
To be honest, I'm for PEDs but I'm not for this whole argument about so called "fairness". Against PEDs or not? It's basically a moot point considering a good percentage of fighters will always be on PEDs. The most wholesome thing for all the fighters would be to allow it and oversee it.
 
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