Performance-enhancing drugs have always been a complex crisis within sports. In the UFC, some of the greatest fighters to ever grace the octagon have been caught taking PEDs, and doubts about who takes them are a constant discussion among the fanbase, with Georges St-Pierre now giving his opinion on the sensitive topic.
Throughout the heights of his time in the cage, a career that spanned 15 years, ‘GSP’ has never tested positive for any illegal substances. Most consider the Canadian to have a seat at the table of the best MMA fighters ever, and doing so without controversies out of competition is a major factor in many people considering him the greatest of all time.
While he himself has never been known to take performance-enhancing drugs, Georges St-Pierre has had experiences with those who have openly used them. St-Pierre opened up on the PED in sports talk during an appearance on the Danny Jones podcast.
“Look, I never used performance-enhancing drugs, but I have trained many times, with different training partners that are my friends, and [they ‘ve] openly said it to me when they are on cycles,” St-Pierre said. “I can tell you, it makes such a crazy big difference. It’s insane. Some guys that say, ‘Oh, it’s me who threw the punch, it’s not the product.’ Bullsh*t. You would maybe not have had the vigilance or the clairvoyance to react if you would not have been on that drug. You know what I mean? It makes a crazy difference. So, yes, it helps for a sport like lifting or running, but it also helps for sports that are more technical, like combat sports.”
Fighters taking PEDs is nothing new to the world of combat sports. The UFC alone has had its fair share of issues involving illegal substances, with fighters who both have and haven’t been caught using anything prohibited being shamed by fans.
Testosterone replacement therapy, otherwise known as TRT, was banned in 2014 by the Nevada Athletic Commission, birthing a clear change in many fighters’ physiques in the years since. St-Pierre believes athletes still find ways to cheat the system over a decade later and use PEDs to their benefit.
“Very often, I mean, guys that use performance-enhancing drugs for fighting, very often they will take something, I think, that will increase their level of testosterone,” St-Pierre continued. “Because if you have more testosterone, like, you’re obviously more aggressive, you recuperate faster, more testosterone equals more muscle, bigger bone density. But also, they will take something to increase their stamina. A lot of time, they will [have] some kind of mixed cocktail with EPO.”
“I don’t have the expertise, you know, to know that stuff by heart, but from what I hear from guys that are either, from what I’ve seen from guys that have been caught using them and hear from guys that are openly telling me what they take, it’s very often stuff that has to do to elevate your level of testosterone and your stamina. But it also makes you stronger, faster, more powerful, more aggressive, but it also makes you more creative…”
“100% [they ‘re still cheating today]. It’s freaking corrupted bullsh*t. Where there will be money, there will always be corruption. It’s better than what it used to be, when USADA got in. When I was competing in the first part of my career, it was a free-for-all. It was like a far west. It was like in your face. To be caught, you needed to be stupid, you know. Because you know you’ve been tested that day of the fight. You need to be stupid if you get caught in the old days.”
“Then they made it harder, you know. They started implementing random testing. But even when it’s random testing, it’s very easy to trick… It’s very hard to have a perfect system to catch people who cheat. It’s very, very hard. And where there’s money, there will always be corruption.”