Bernie Sanders & Jose Canseco on Steroids in Baseball (3/17/2005)

Mark Hunt Threatens to Leave UFC over doping violations?

http://mmajunkie.com/2016/07/mark-hunt-i-dont-want-to-be-part-of-the-ufc-unless-they-do-something-about-doping-violations

Why be a part of a sport where people are cheating?

UFC & Doping

 

UFC and Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) is a sport that is gaining popularity very fast around the world. More recently though, some of its biggest names have been allegedly caught doping such Jon Jones, Brock Lesnar, and Anderson Silva. With some of its popular athletes being caught, does this hurt the growth of UFC and MMA in general as a popular sport? As of right now, it does not appear that way although if this narrative continues for years to come then it will hurt the sport. Take for example UFC 200, its main event was supposed to Jon Jones versus Daniel Cormier. That main event did not happen because Jon Jones was caught using an illegal substance just about a week into the fight. However, UFC did get Anderson Silva to compete against Daniel Cormier. But realistically, if something like this is going to keep happening over and over again, it will be very hard to trust the sport and pay money to watch it as well. Scratching one of your headlining matches after people pay money to watch it on pay-per-view will have fans not wanting to pay to see it because they will not be able to trust that the match they are looking for will happen.

Why has UFC not suffered severely yet? It is still a growing sport and still growing in popular. UFC/MMA has replaced boxing as America's favorite hand to hand combat sport; people are turning away from boxing because it is starting to be less exciting and turn to UFC/MMA. It is the same reason, Americans are infatuated with football. We like the violence that comes with the sport. For now UFC is safe but if nothing changes within the coming years, it may not be.

What is WADA?

The Biogenesis Scandal

The Biogenesis Scandal was a hard hit to baseball. The founder of Biogenesis, Anthony Bosch, testified to supplying specific players with PEDs. If anything, you would think players have learned from the past athletes who have been caught using steroids and that you cannot trust ANYONE to keep your secret. Besides being caught through drug tests, athletes are caught because the person(s) who supplied the steroids usually coughs up player's names to a source. Something similar to the Biogenesis scandal happened to former Olympic athlete Marion Jones, where the person who supplied her with PEDs gave up her name to a source. Players should know that they are going to get caught cheating eventually and should not take PEDs to begin with.

Steroid Stewie

Should MLB Players Who Have Been Caught Cheating Be Banned From The Hall of Fame?

 

Should players such as Barry Bonds and Alex Rodriguez be banned from entering the hall of fame for being known as players who used PEDs?

Remember when Barry Bonds was chasing Hank Aaron as MLB's all time home run hit leader? During that time, a lot of critics of Bonds and baseball felt that the record should not count because it was tainted. People believed Bonds took steroids, although he has never admitted to knowingly taking steroids. There were discussions at the time that the record should have an asterisk next to it because people believed that without the steroids, Bonds does not hit that many home runs. Whether people like it or not, Bonds is listed as MLB's all time home run leader.

When it comes to MLB's Hall of Fame, should Bonds be allowed in? When Alex Rodriguez retires, should he be allowed in? Fans do not have a vote if players go into MLB's Hall of Fame. The choice of who goes into the Hall of Fame is based upon professional sport writers and other peers of the game. When discussing who goes in the Hall of Fame and who does not, the discussion of steroids usually come up. Writers do acknowledge that certain players were caught cheating and do not deserve to be in the Hall of Fame. Other writers may look at it from a different perspective and may have an argument as to why this player should be allowed in the Hall of Fame. For those who vote in the Hall of Fame, I'm pretty sure it is tough to separate and dissect the numbers from players who used steroids and trying to figure out, what steroids may or may not have done to separate those numbers.

If known cheaters were allowed into the Hall of Fame, it may set the precedent that it is okay not to do things with integrity in our society and get rewarded. Maybe MLB can do something similar to what the NCAA does and vacate wins and championships but instead vacate hits, home runs, RBIs, and etc. for it players that get caught using steroids during that known period of time where the player was caught using steroids. Maybe it will make it easier to vote who goes in the Hall of Fame and who doesn't. You will have a known set of numbers where you know the player was presumably clean.

If I had a vote in who goes to MLB Hall of Fame, I would not vote for any connected to doping whatsoever. I think the same should go for the people who vote in the MLB Hall of Fame.