Let’s be clear: performance enhancing drugs are illegal in the UFC, and you will be suspended from the sport for years if they catch you using them. Well, the PEDs on the Drug Free Sports International banned list, that is. If they’re not on the list, the UFC might actually prescribe them for you. That’s […]
Let’s be clear: performance enhancing drugs are illegal in the UFC, and you will be suspended from the sport for years if they catch you using them. Well, the PEDs on the Drug Free Sports International banned list, that is. If they’re not on the list, the UFC might actually prescribe them for you.
That’s according to UFC heavyweight Derrick Lewis, who returns to the cage at UFC 324 against Waldo Cortes-Acosta. “The Black Beast” is 40 years old and has had some serious health issues, including back issues that forced him out of several fights. But according to Derrick, he’s feeling better than ever thanks to peptides recommended to him by the UFC itself.
“I ain’t gonna lie to you, I’m in the best shape of my life right now,” he said on his new ‘Beast and the Cowboy’ podcast. “Mentally, physically, everything’s going great right now. I’m perfect. The UFC provided me with some great peptides, and I’ve been taking it every day, and I’ve been feeling a difference.”
“His mental clarity was on,” his coach Bob Perez added. “So I’d make a call or an adjustment. He would do it immediately. His recovery was stupid. So he did his three fives and generally on Fridays, it’s the lightest day. He’ll go into strength and conditioning after that. But he wanted to do some heavy bag work after. And I was like, please, let’s go.”
“It was really mind blowing how quickly the peptides took effect. You know, it’s going to be a game changer for him.”
Peptides are short chains of amino acids that act as signaling molecules in the body, and there are tons of them out there with all sorts of therapeutic functions. Some like BPC 157 and TB 500 are highly touted for their healing properties. Others like Tesofensine supposedly aid with mental clarity. We saw ‘supposedly’ because there’s not a ton of vigorous scientific data out there on these peptides just yet.
Obviously we want UFC fighters to have the best and most cutting edge medical treatment for recovery and healing … but where does the line get drawn between these and the laundry list of other drugs you could argue simply help an athlete heal and recover?
For now, that line is whatever is on the Drug Free Sports International’s banned substances list. If it ain’t on that list, then the UFC Performance Institute will hook you right up with it, like they have with stem cell treatments over past years.
As far as we know, a lot of peptides are blanket-banned due to a lack of approved clinical use in humans. We doubt the UFC would be setting fighters up with substances they shouldn’t be using, though. And if these peptides don’t give athletes strokes or allow them to balloon up to TRT-era Vitor Belfort size, is there really a problem here?
Category: General Sports
