Tri-star head coach Firas Zahabi is completely against fighters using PEDs, and he believes human growth hormones may be the worst of them.
The famed MMA coach of fighters such as Georges St-Pierre, Rory MacDonald and Joseph Duffy did a YouTube Q&A on the topic of steroids in MMA following the controversy surrounding Jon Jones and Brock Lesnar at UFC 200.
Although he admitted that world is a little alien to him and that to the best of his knowledge, none of the fighters he trains are using PEDs, he did give some great insight into juicing based on some experiences he’s had. Zahabi thinks that if there was one PED that was the most effective at improving a fighter’s performance, it might be human growth hormone (HGH).
“One time I was training a doctor and we were talking about that, what would be the most dangerous thing? What should we be aware of that our opponents might be taking. I remember him telling me that the best thing out there is HGH. Why? Because it helps you recover so much.”
“He was a big believer that recovery was the number one component of taking PEDs and I agree with him totally. If I can train really hard and recover the next day, that means the next day I can train even more. I’ll train even more, I’ll become even more competent.”
The Nevada State Athletic Commission banned Testosterone Replacement Therapy (TRT) in 2014, a year after Vitor Belfort handed Luke Rockhold his first ever UFC loss with a first-round spinning back kick knockout while in 2013.
The Brazilian was on TRT after being granted a therapeutic usage exemption the Brazilian MMA Athletic Commission, but Rockhold didn’t blame the loss on the TRT at the time. However, Zahabi believes that he would have been perfectly within his rights to do so.
“I remember hearing Luke Rockhold say after he got knocked out by Vitor Belfort, he said, ‘It wasn’t the TRT that kicked me in the head,’ but I couldn’t believe he doesn’t understand that it doesn’t mean that if you take TRT you’ll be able to do a spinning kick. Not at all, but you’ll be able to practise the spinning kick more than somebody who’s natural because your body will recover from your workout.”
“So you can do grappling, wrestling, jiu-jitsu, weights and then do 1001 spin kicks if I’m on TRT. I’m recovering more. Not only am I stronger, leaner etc all these things, I’m recovering more and when you can recover more, you can practice more. So if a guy on PEDs ups his practice time 30 or 40%, he’s going to be 30% better in his results.”
He added that if a fighter was to take HGH, they might also require another substance to become stronger, but he still believes that reducing recovery time would be more beneficial than adding strength.
“The second PED I would take (hypothetically) is one that would give more strength. I give strength a backseat to recovery. The more competent I become, the more I can take your strength and use it against you.”
“How are they cutting weight? How are they getting so lean? How are they doing all these 30, 40 lb weight cuts? How are they doing all these things plus still training hard? Probably there is a PED out there that makes you recover and HGH is supposedly, again, this is ‘bro science, the better one.”
Zahabi reaffirmed his stance that he is completely anti-PED use in MMA and would never condone it. He even went as far to suggest that it should be treated as assault, if a fighter was caught using them during a fight.
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