Hormone Replacement Therapy At the Heart of Nate Marquardt’s Removal from UFC

[Scott Yockel]

Hormone replacement therapy was at the heart of the reason behind Nate Marquardt being pulled from the UFC on Versus 4 main event on Sunday in Pittsburgh.

Marquardt revealed the news when appearing on the ‘MMA Hour’ on Tuesday.

Following the events from the weekend in which Marquardt was pulled from his scheduled fight with Rick Story and subsequently released from the UFC, he spoke candidly about the situation.

According to Marquardt, he was feeling moody and tired and after seeking a doctor’s medical advice, he was diagnosed with low testosterone and started therapy in August 2010.

Marquardt stated that in March 2011 when he fought Dan Miller in New Jersey that the athletic commission there allowed him to fight after filing papers for a medical exemption for the testosterone replacement therapy.

The therapy continued for Marquardt following the fight and his levels of testosterone spiked. Essentially, leading up to the weigh-ins on Saturday, he was still not cleared because his tests were still coming back too high.

Since the weekend, Marquardt stated that his testosterone levels have continued to drop and as of a test on Tuesday he believes he’s met all the requirements necessary to file the paperwork with the Pennsylvania State Athletic Commission to have his suspension lifted.

Executive Director Greg Sirb told MMAWeekly.com on Tuesday stated that they are still reviewing the information.

“We are still in the review process,” Sirb stated. “There is a lot of info to look thru and we want to make sure everything is picture perfect.”

The situation surrounding Marquardt escalated on Saturday when he still hadn’t met the requirements. UFC president Dana White, shortly after the weigh-in, released him via a video released via Twitter.

Marquardt’s manager, Lex McMahon, found out about the release from the message and then passed along the information to his fighter.

Marquardt said he ‘half expected’ to be released following the situation, but he was hopeful to get a second chance with the promotion at some point in the future.

[Daniel Valdez]

Aint that some shit. The use of TRT is getting out of hand, in a bad way. I don't understand how someone can be so shredded and be low on testerone? I'm not an expert or even have much knowledge on it, but on the outside, it doesn't look legit to me. I believe that it can be a problem for people and can be treatable through qualified physicians and careful treatment. But when your the biggest dude in your weight class and you can go down in weight, something seems fishy.
I feel the same way about D-bag Chael Sonnen.

[Frank R.]

That's like someone complaining to have pain for the sole reason to get a marijuana license. He was just working the system to legally juice. "Tired and moody", yeah better start roiding.

[Chris Herzog]

[Bryan Brown]

That's like someone complaining to have pain for the sole reason to get a marijuana license. He was just working the system to legally juice. "Tired and moody", yeah better start roiding.

Not quite, What it says is, he had already juiced and stopped, now after the cycle his shriveled balls are not producing enough testosterone, so he went to a Dr and got it prescribed. All too common, paper thin argument of a classic roider. All respect lost.

[David Stager]

Glad Dana saw through the bullshit and hopefully this will put other fighters on notice.

[AJ Camacho]

Oh, so it was just one big misunderstanding over his hormones. (sarcasm)

[Eric "Tiger Blood" Safier]

[RichardC]

They either need to ban it all or accept it all. This double standard is bullshit. Steroids have incredible health benefits when used responsibly, but are considered cheating for whatever reason, I suppose simply because the "rules" say it is. So they need to either ban both steroids and HRT (which chemically is the exact same thing), or let people juice as they see fit. Lots of well-intentioned athletes are getting lambasted for using test as a moral issue, when the moral issue is difficult to defend and pinpoint because no one is literally and directly being wronged.

Before Caio Terra pontificated about steroids, he physically proved that steroids make very little difference in jiu-jitsu, and obviously don't in fighting, generally speaking. Ken Shamrock, Mark Coleman, Ricardo Arona, Jeff Monson, Josh Barnett, and Sean Sherk have all either admitted to using test, or have been caught, and they all have lost their share of fights.

[Jason Guest]

Ok look, the whole "going to the doctor cause i'm moody" thing is a sham. Bullshit. It's a legal loophole to get steroids with a prescription.
step 1. just go 'hmm, i want roids.'
2. find a specialist doctor that has a rep for prescribing roids
3. walk in, complain of feeling old before your time, low libido, excessive mood swings.
4. the doctor pretends to do bloodwork and an exam
5. doctor prescribes the roids to fix your 'symptoms', makes money on your visit.