When UFC veteran Krzysztof Soszynski claimed that "somewhere in the percentage of 85%" of top-level mixed martial artists use performance enhancing drugs, it caught very few people's attention. After all, a lone comment from a low-profile fighter can easily get lost in the wide swath of the information age .
But it seems that now former UFC welterweight champion Matt Serra has joined in the discussion. The 13-year veteran discussed the how the seedy chemical affliction has pervaded the sport in an interview with MMAWeekly.com.
"It's wrong man, it's really wrong. There's a lot of guys that are considered legends, and they're doing the GH [human growth hormone] and doing this and that, and it's obvious, it's freaking obvious."
"It's one thing if you're fighting for an hour, but you got 15 minutes in there. Next thing you know you're in there fighting a guy with unlimited energy that looks like a He-Man figure. I don't give a (expletive) if it's happening in baseball, but when a guy can kick your head off, someone can get hurt. There's a chance for serious bodily harm."
Serra's last point is a stark reminder of the stakes at hand here. MMA is inherently physical, well beyond the realm of almost all other sports. As the UFC's latest broadcast deal with Fox inches mixed martial arts closer towards public legitimacy, it seems like it's only a matter of time until this issue gets addressed.