Michael Thompson: Mixed Martial Arts

Parents looking for something free, healthy and fun for their children to do this summer need to look no further. Ultimate MMA Training Center on the Hamden/North Haven line will be offering free classes this summer for kids on Monday nights from June through August.

Steroids cannot only affect its users and abusers, but may also affect those who associate with them. In a recent documentary about Lance Armstrong called The Armstrong Lie, it’s revealed of many people who were ruined from trying to cross him. From interviewers, to other cyclists and even his own former teammate Frankie Andreu. Andreu who played a role in the USADA’s investigation of Armstrong’s doping practices by testifying in the case revealed that after doing so a lot of people wouldn’t look at him or even shake his hand because of his allegations and he felt as though he was shunned from the planet. Lance Armstrong mislead and deceived his fans and the world in what is

Lance Armstrong destroyed his reputation just like Braun by taking steroids. However, Armstrong denies his steroid use, but he has stopped fighting the United States Anti-Doping Agency accusations (“Peddling” par. 2). His defense in

Background: Although people have been using steroids over 50 years, it wasn't until we started seeing headlines about athletes using steroids that it started receiving attention.

Aaron Henry was 13 when he started taking steroids. He wanted to gain an edge in football. After four years of using steroids, Henry was 5'9" and weighed 210 pounds. He gained weight and power from taking steroids, but that is not all they gave him. He experienced spells of vomiting, urinating blood, liver and kidney damage, ulceration over three-fourths of his stomach, a mild heart attack, and an aggressive personality (James 18). Henry was only aware of steroids' positive effects. He was unaware about their side effects and health risks. Much of the public, just like Henry, is uninformed or wrongly informed about steroids. The media fails to show the negative aspects of using steroids. Because of this, many people think that

Many children all across the United States and other countries try to replicate their favorite superstar athlete. Many athletes become the children’s idol and once the child learns that the athlete has cheated the game the athlete plays the child no longer looks up to the athlete. It is almost gotten to the point where no athlete that excels in a particular sport can be trusted. Every time a single athlete becomes great at their respective sport, speculation of steroid abuse immediately follows.

“That was the first time I wrestled him,” Miller said. “I beat the snot out of him, really bad. He was shocked. Afterward he was freaking out. He was like, ‘That’s the worst I’ve ever been beat.’”

Ben Johnson was one of the first superstar athletes to be caught using steroids and was stripped of his 100m gold medal at the 1988 Olympics. He was eventually banned for life in 1993 for testing positive again (Richardson 2010). Performance enhancing drugs have become widely used since the 1970’s and have only increased in the numbers of athletes using the drugs to up their endurance and perform to their greatest potential. Professionals such as Barry Bonds, Jose Canseco, and Hulk Hogan have all been humiliated and are now seen as cheaters after being caught using steroids. It is too late to stop these sports fuelled on drugs because of the large number of athletes using, so why not consider drug use as a

?When late football player Lyle Alzado contended in 1991 that anabolic steroid abuse caused his inoperable brain lymphoma, which ultimately killed the retired football player?? (Denham 63) Yet athletes continue to disregard warnings of the harmful affects and persist on abusing the illegal substances. I think Barry Bonds current injuries can be blamed on his use of designer steroids. This just goes to show that he had his time to shine in breaking many professional baseball records but now he is paying the price for the abuse of steroids. The journal of the American Medical Association has tested many illegal steroids and has found that they give you mass results like all athletes look for in using steroids; however steroids do cause adverse effects such as breast enlargement, heart disease, and cancer. (Denham 64) A group of athletic trainers were brought together and began a 6 to 18 week study of the affects of steroids on several athletes; at the end of the study they came up with result of massive gains in strength but there were signs of cardiovascular disease developing in most of the athletes. (Hartgens 5) Most athletes have knowledge of these side effects. Nearly all the side effects are printed on every bottle of illegal substances athletes buy, yet they continue to abuse steroids. Athletes know of these effects but they continue to use steroids, they get the results in strength that they are looking for but eventually all

Performance enhancing drugs have affected these athletes in a many different ways, such as letting all of their fans and people that look up to them down by using the steroids to enhance their performance. Not only are they hurting themselves, but they are hurting their family, friends, and supporters. All of these athletes have all had similar negative outcomes. All of these athletes would want to perform to the best of their ability. In the end, Alex Rodriguez, Lance Armstrong, Tyson Gay, and Marion Jones’ careers have all plummeted. Alex Rodriguez got suspended for 162 games, Lance Armstrong has been banned from all events revolving around road biking, Tyson Gay has been disqualified from the olympics, and Marion Jones will face jail time. Lance Armstrong once said 4"I would want to change the man that did those things, maybe not the decision, but the way he acted. The way he treated people, the way he couldn't stop fighting. It was unacceptable,

“…medical researchers believe that between 1 and 3 million youths and adults have taken anabolic steroids in one form or another specifically to enhance their looks or athletic performances,” stated Nuwer (Nuwer, 61). As astounding as these figures are, the number of performance drug users is steadily increasing. With this progressively increasing numbers, it is projected that millions more will use steroids in the immediate future (Newer, 61). Athletes have always sought an advantage in competition even if ignoring the law and their health if necessary. Using drugs of any sort to facilitate an athlete’s athletic ability should be illegal. The use of performance enhancing drugs is not only detrimental to the user but it also creates an

In the days when steroids were only being used by body builders and professional wrestlers, stories about performance enhancing drugs could only be found on the back pages of the newspapers. When former Oakland Raiders All-Pro Lyle Alzado admitted to steroid use in a 1991 Sports Illustrated article the whispers about what professional athletes were using steroids began to get louder. (Puma, 2005) Finally, in 2002, when Caminiti, a former MVP, came clean, two things were clear; athletes in all sports were using these drugs, and that they worked. The fact that steroid use had permeated our national pastime combined with the media explosion of the internet and 24 hour a day sports talk created a perfect storm which created the biggest sports story of the new millennium so far. However, two other facts remained clear, performance enhancing drugs were old news, and athletes in all sports from all over the world had been using them for years.

The problem with today’s society is that steroids are everywhere and companies are finding ways around the steroid label by producing drugs that contain the same ingredients but are labeled differently. Professional athletes are also becoming big icons for people and many athletes are using steroids to enhance their performance. Athletes are supposed to be role models and by getting involved in these kinds of things people see it as an ok thing to do. Steroids are common everywhere, baseball and football players are constantly finding ways to take these drugs. Pro wrestling

"’The UFC and MMA in general is a steroid epidemic. They've started this really stringent testing and everybody is getting popped. They're just getting popped left and right. It's one of the things fighters have been saying for a long time, that everyone is on steroids, a huge percentage. Give a number 50, 60 [percent]. Whatever the fuck it is that are on steroids. The reality is, this whole steroid epidemic, one thing we have to recognize, the use of steroids is less than 100 years old. There's always been substances that people have taken, but the actual use of anabolic steroids in human beings is relatively recent in human history. I think as time goes on, they're going to create more powerful and crazier shit and it's going to get to the

Is it time to say yes to Steroids in professional sports or keep them out? One of the two articles that I chose to use for this paper is, “Is It Time to Say Yes to Steroid in Professional Sports?” written by Raymmar Tirado (2014) of the Huff Sports Division. The second article is, “Why Steroids Have No Place in Sports” written by April Ashley (2010) from Marquette University Law School. These articles pose two different points of view when it comes down to the use of all Performance Enhancing Drugs in Professional Sports.