Dana White changes his tune, now thinks TRT is "great" and "absolutely fair"

By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief

"Here's the thing about TRT. It's absolutely 100% legal. As sports medicine continues to advance, this is one of those things where every guy's testosterone level starts to drop as they get older and this is basically sports science now where they can bring it back up to a normal level. And I think it's great, it's absolutely fair, it's legal. The problem is, there are guys who say if this much is good THIS MUCh must be great, so you have guys who are always trying to do more than they're supposed to do. The big job is policing it, making sure that it's not being abused, that guys are using it the way it's supposed to be used."

-One month after calling testosterone replacement therapy "junk" in an interview with ESPN, UFC President Dana White changed his tune once again in an interview with Fox Sports' "MMA Intensity" (transcribed by BloodyElbow.com).

Penick's Analysis: You know what else is "sports science"? Human growth hormone; new, undetectable drugs developed for athletes for performance enhancement. Science is a big part of the PED movement, and opponents of TRT see it as yet another one being used as a loophole by fighters to enhance their recovery and training energy. The issue with TRT isn't that a fighter's going to be jacked up on fight night. It's not going to lead to overly muscled steroid-freak rage attacks come fight night. What it does do is allow a fighter to recover at a faster pace than their body would allow otherwise, and to gain other benefits from the use of testosterone. That's why there's an issue to discuss here. And when White talks about policing it, they're not doing anything on that front, either. The commission's aren't doing overly extensive testing for fighters who are requesting exemptions for these treatments, and the UFC washes their hands on the drug testing issue and leaves it up to the commissions. Because of all that the use of this particular substance is very shady, and until there's a uniform shift in the mindset of fans, athletes, and critics, TRT and other scientific advancements for these issues will be heavily scrutinized.

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