UFC’s middleweight fighter Chael Sonnen lodged an appeal after the California State Athletic Commission slapped him with 1 year suspension because of a positive test for steroids. Both of his A and B samples returned positive results but Sonnen is still hoping that the decision of the CSAC will be reverted or at least reduced to a much shorter period. But the real challenge to the UFC fighter is on how to convince the CSAC that he should not be suspended.

The suspension is a double black eye on Sonnen because he lost his chance to get the title from Anderson Silva in their match up in UFC 117 at the Oracle Arena in Oakland, California last August. Every fighter in the middleweight division is eager to unseat Silva who is considered as one of the best fighters in the UFC. However, only a few can be a good match up for Silva and that includes Sonnen. The expected rematch was put on the shelves and Sonnen has to serve his sentence first before he can ask for another fight against Anderson Silva. Aside from the 1 year suspension, Sonnen is also required to pay a fine amounting to $2,500.

The Defense: TRT

Now, insiders in the MMA got a glimpse of what will be the defense of Chael Sonnen when he meets the commissioners on December 2. Sonnen’s camp will try to convince CSAC that the fighter was under a Testosterone Replacement Therapy or TRT. According to online reports, Sonnen has been on hormone therapy even before his fight with Yushin Okami and he was given clearance by the CSAC during that time. An abnormal testosterone level in the body could be caused by several factors. It can be due to age, heredity, or due to weight fluctuations. If Sonnen has a legitimate medical condition, then there is a probability that their defense will be given consideration.

Failure to Declare Testosterone Treatment

However, Sonnen failed to acknowledge that condition when he fought Anderson Silva. Probably he was negligent or his doctor failed to remind him or his team failed to apply for exemption. There are so many possibilities but it was too late for them to realize that they violated the anti-doping rules of the CSAC. Though, one of the possible arguments that they have is that the CSAC has on its file the previous approval of Sonnen’s testosterone medication.

Cageside Seats also reported that Sonnen did not apply for exemption when he fought Nate Marquardt in Nevada. The executive director of the NSAC Keith Kizer told them that the middleweight fighter never applied or was approved for testosterone replacement therapy in February or in any other fight of Sonnen in Nevada. So this would give them another problem. Since a damage endocrine system requires continuous treatment, Sonnen should have disclosed it when he fought Marquardt.

Prediction on Sonnen’s Case

Oliver Copp, UFC writer and commentator, posted on a message board that he predicts CSAC would still enforce the suspension against Sonnen for failure to declare his condition. Required to pay the fine and probably fight Bisping on his comeback.

Meanwhile, another UFC fighter was caught using the steroid stanozolol. The UFC confirmed that Vinicius Quieroz tested positive for the banned substance when he fought Rob Broughton in UFC 120. Quieroz lost the fight and the discretionary bonus was also forfeited.

Winning the World Series Championship after so many decades is the best thing that happened to the San Francisco Giants this year. They were able to dominate the best of 7 games against the Texas Rangers, one of the best team in the league. But the jubilation of the team may just be ruined by news reports that one of their team mates is being investigated by the Drug Enforcement Agency for possible illegal importation of human growth hormone or HGH.

According to the sources of the New York Daily News, the San Francisco Giants outfielder Jose Guillen is being investigated for purchasing 50 pre-loaded HGH syringes which were intercepted by the authorities in September. Though the shipment was named to his wife Yamel Acevedo, the outfielder is still at the center of the investigation because of his profession. Reports also revealed that the DEA already informed the Major League Baseball of the incident and they are now looking for possibilities that other players may be involved.

Source of HGH

The shipment of HGH allegedly came from Miami and a DEA undercover delivered it to Guillen’s residence in San Francisco. Authorities also search their home but there were no reports of any additional HGH or steroid products confiscated from the couple. Just recently, Yamel left the country and returned to Dominican Republic.

DEA agents are also investigating on another shipment which was allegedly shipped to a San Francisco apartment or hotel address named after Jose Guillen. This time the shipment came from suppliers from the Dominican Republic. Purchasing steroids and HGH is not a problem in the Dominican Republic because it is not illegal in the country. In fact, most of the baseball players linked to steroid use got their products from the country. Just like in the case of Alex Rodriguez who admitted that the steroid Primobolan he used came from the D.R.

Not the First

Jose Guillen’s involvement in steroid and hgh use is not surprising anymore. In 2008, he was given a 15-game suspension for purchasing on several occasions steroids and HGH from a Palm Beach Rejuvenation center. Some of those shipments include HGH, testosterone propionate, stanozolol and syringes. The transactions happened from 2002 to 2005 as revealed in the Mitchell Report. Guillen was just lucky that Selig gave him and other players amnesty for the offense.

Reasons for Purchasing HGH

HGH supplement slows down the ageing process and helps in the faster recovery from injuries. Many believed that the neck injury of Guillen prompted him to purchase HGH. Guillen was dropped from the roster of the Giants in the final weeks of the season. Giants’ manager Bruce Bochy cited the neck injury as the primary reason. Of course, who would want to see your team win the World Series by just watching them from the sidelines? Faster recovery from the injury is the only answer to be back in the game. However, this leads Guillen to a more serious problem.

This is the second case where the Australian Defense department pulled out their soldiers in Afghanistan because of anabolic steroid use. Early in June, four members of the Special Forces were also sent home for testing positive for steroids. This news was confirmed by the defense department saying that one of the soldiers was already removed from the service while the other two are still investigated.

The military had intensified its drug testing on its personnel including those assigned in other countries as peacekeepers. Neil James, executive director of the Australia Defence Association told a news network that it is not yet considered as a major problem in the army because the number is still low. “We don’t see this as being a widespread problem at all, considering the number of people that serve in Afghanistan each year, that’s about one in 600, which is a remarkably low percentage,” he told abc.net.au.

The executive director is surprised that there are still some soldiers who take the risks by using anabolic steroids while on duty. The steroid tests are now being conducted regularly so anybody who is using any illegal substances will surely be caught. “Well the only thing that’s a little bit disquieting about this is now the testing of the troops overseas is near 100 per cent, you wonder how anyone thought they could get away with it,” he said.

James hinted that it may be due to boredom why some soldiers resort to steroids. “But steroid use tends to be a sign of boredom and it tends to be a little bit of a competitive thing among young, fit Australians. So if you’ve got the problem in the wider society then you’re eventually going to have it in your military. But how they thought they could get away with it is a bit puzzling,” he added.

The obvious reason why these soldiers use steroids is to stay fit. The kind of job is forcing some of the military personnel to take supplements to enhance their physique. Although they have regular trainings and exercises, some would still depend on steroids to achieve bigger and leaner muscles.

However, some officials are not convinced that this would help the soldiers perform better in their jobs. Some are even worried that it may lead to roid rage, a known side effect of using anabolic steroid. However, James is still confident that this scenario will not happen. Though he agreed that severe steroid use can cause roid rage, the results of their tests were not yet alarming and there were no overuse of the drug. “So I don’t really think the rage would have been too much of a problem and there’s lots of ways that would have been uncovered anyway, just in the way that soldiers look after each other and their general behaviour,” James added.

The security forces assigned in Afghanistan are helping the Afghan National Army in tactical operations and they are also fighting Taliban forces as part of the Special Operations Task Group. Australia has at least 1550 troops which include commandos and Special Air Service military personnel.

It’s almost 2 years after the World Anti-doping Agency or WADA decided to increase the penalty for athletes caught using performance enhancing substances or illegal methods to improve performance. The standard 2-year ban was extended up to 4 years. The purpose of the longer penalty is to deter professional athletes to be involved in doping or any illegal means to become a better athlete.

The WADA director general David Howman expressed his concerns on this issue. He wants all sports organizations under WADA to implement the policy. This will help protect clean athletes from those who achieved better skills due to cheating. “They don’t want to be lining up against people who cheat. They get a two-year penalty and, quick as a flash, they’re back again,” Howman told the AP.

When to Use the 4-year Ban

The 4-year ban can be used against first time offenders with aggravating circumstances. Howman hinted that federations and national anti-doping bodies are wary of using the maximum penalty for fear of legal cases that may be filed against them by offending athletes. “This four years was something that people who were advocating stronger penalties really wanted us to include, and so it was included. But 18 months later, it’s hardly being used, if at all,” he said. “When it comes to the crunch, obviously people are not willing to be as tough as they sound.”

When the 4-year ban was approved in January 2009, officials agreed to use the policy on athletes who were found to be involved in a doping conspiracy, using or possessing different banned substances, using illegal substances on multiple occasions or using deceptive or obstructing conduct to avoid detection.

Anti-doping experts know that this could result to some legal arguments. It was already questioned before that the use of 4-year ban was too much. However, experts from WADA can now defend this policy. They said that there are already proofs that the benefits of performance enhancing substances like anabolic steroids can last more than 4 years. “It was that scientific evidence that made the legal people say, ‘Yes, there are good reasons for extending the ban from two years to four years in anabolic steroid cases,” said WADA vice president Arne Ljungqvist.

Ljungqvist also told the AP that once they have a good case, they will be implementing the 4-year ban. “No one has been doing it, so we are waiting for a suitable test case. So far people are still living with the idea that two years is the standard ban, which should not be the case in serious cases like EPO and steroids and the like. We will take action once we have a good case to pursue,” he said.

Cases of 4-year Bans

Although there are already a few cases where some sports leagues used the 4-year ban but WADA expect more. A Bulgarian soccer coach was sanctioned for giving his players pills containing steroids before competitions. The AP also reported that Austrian triathlete Hannes Hempel got the same 4-year sanction for providing drugs to former cyclist Bernhard Kohl. The International Weightlifting Federation also adapted the policy to prevent weightlifters to be involved in doping.

UCI President Pat McQuaid is also pushing for the 4-year ban in his sport. “I’m increasingly going for four years because two years is very quick,” said McQuaid. He said that athletes can return to the sports very quick after suspension and it’s unfair to clean athletes. The cycling federation will now be tested if they can really enforce this anti-doping policy. A month ago, the 3-time Tour de France champion Alberto Contador was caught using clenbuterol. Let’s see what happens after the investigation.

China is one of the countries who can produce gold medalists in any competition whether it’s Olympics or Asian Games. However, in the previous athletic competitions the country’s reputation was also marred by some Chinese athletes who were caught using anabolic steroids. When they hosted the Beijing Olympics, their players were not exempted from the scrutiny of the Olympic anti-doping officials. Even in the previous Olympics some of the country’s athletes were sanctioned by the IOC for violating anti-doping rules. There were already a handful of them who returned positive test for banned substances. And now that they are hosting the Asian Games, Chinese sports officials are determined to weed out athletes who could ruin their reputation again.

Before the start of the Asian Games, Chinese anti-doping officials have conducted extensive anti-doping education and steroid tests. Online reports said that the country conducted at least 2,000 tests before the Asian Games which started last Friday. In an effort to clean their delegation of any doping athlete, there were 1,950 urine tests conducted and 120 blood tests for some sports.

It is indeed a great effort of the Chinese government because their delegation is only composed of 1000 athletes. The tests which are already twice the number of the participants is sending a strong message to their own athletes that they are serious in cracking down cheating athletes. Jiang Zhixue, the anti-doping chief of State General Administration of Sport told the AFP that they are hoping that the country will have a clean record in the competition. “We have been working hard to send a clean team to the Asian Games and ensure there is no positive case in our delegation,” Zhixue said.

All of the participants in the Asian Games were required to undergo anti-doping education and have to sign a letter of commitment that they will abide by the anti-doping rules. “We refined the system that we initiated in last year’s National Games,” said Jiang. “No athlete is allowed into the team before they finish the required anti-doping education, no matter how great their sport achievements are,” the anti-doping chief said.

This new approach of the Chinese sports officials can be considered an effective strategy. In fact, they were able to catch two athletes earlier this year for taking anabolic steroids. Both were given sanctions. Olympic judo champion Tong Wen was caught using the anabolic steroid clenbuterol and Olympian sprinter Wang Jing returned positive for epitestosterone and epitestosterone metabolites. Wen was banned for 2 years and Jing was banned for life.

The host country is also doing well in the Asian Games. Winning at least 16 gold medals in the early competition is a good start for China and this will hopefully bring them to the top when the competition ends. Now, they can say that even without steroids, their athletes can win gold medals in a competition where the best athletes of Asia meet.

While many boxing fans want a fight between Pacquiao and Mayweather, the match up between Pacquiao and Margarito is still a good bout to watch. Both fighters have been through controversies which makes it an interesting fight. Antonio Margarito was suspended by the CSAC for illegal hand wraps when he fought Sugar Shane Mosley. The worst thing is, Margarito lost that fight. Manny Pacquiao, on the other hand, was accused of using steroids. It was alleged by the camp of Floyd Mayweather that the boxing legend uses steroids to get his 7 world title.

Although the steroid issue died down a little bit, Margarito also uses it to create more buzz in their fight on NOvember 13. Sportswriters who visited the training gym of Margarito saw a poster of Manny Pacquiao and Freddie Roach with a caption “”Say No To Steroids“. Well, he may not be too vocal on this issue but the sign is sending a message to the Pacquiao camp.

When Antonio Margarito was asked about the poster, he said that it was just a retaliation on the statements issued by Pacquaio and Roach on his suspension due to illegal hand wraps. Pacquaio and Roach allegedly said that Margarito knows it. It may be impossible for a boxer to not notice the illegal plaster on his hands. Margarito has long denied that he intentionally requested or was knowledge of the unauthorized plaster on his hands.

The fault was already accepted by his former trainer but the suspension was still enforced against Margarito. In an interview of a boxing media outfit, former trainer Javier Capetillo said, “I made a mistake. I wasn’t trying to hide anything. I just screwed up, and I did it in front of Mosley’s trainer and the commissioners. I was just under a lot of pressure because I knew we shouldn’t have taken the fight, I knew Tony was in trouble and I knew that I had put him in that position.”

The Mexican boxer dubbed as the “Tijuana Tornado” is optimistic that he will beat Pacquiao regardless if he is on steroids or not. He has the height and reach advantage over Pacquiao. He is also a volume puncher and likes to attack the body. On the other hand, Pacquiao has also his advantage over Margarito. It is his speed. “With our strategy, we are not worried about the size. I believe I can fight the bigger guys even though I am small compared to them. We always believe in our talent.” Pacquiao said in an interview.

The fight will be held at the Dallas Cowboys Stadium with an estimated 70,000 fans watching the fight and this does not include the pay per view. At stake is the World Boxing Council super welterweight championship. If Manny Pacquiao wins over Antonio Margarito, this will be his 8th world championship title. The first in boxing history.

Pacquiao’s promoter Bob Arum and coach Reddie Roach are all confident that Pacquiao will win this fight. Roach even predicted that Margarito will be knocked down on the 8th round. Arum said in an interview that he thinks Manny Pacquiao is the best fighter that he have ever seen.

As for the previous opponents of Pacquiao, Joshua Clottey and Miguel Cotto both agreed that Margarito should be careful on this fight. Both acknowledge the punching power of Pacquiao.

We know that boxing fans around the world are all eager to know the winner in this match up. Is it Manny Pacquiao or Antonio Margarito. We will know in a very short time.