“Prior to the UFC 146 press conference in March, I aggravated an old rib injury on my left side. My doctor prescribed, and I accepted, an anti-inflammatory medication that was mixed with testosterone. I was completely unaware that testosterone was one of the ingredients in the medication.”
Those were the words Alistair Overeem released in his press release leading up to his trial before the Nevada State Athletic Commission (NSAC). Pretty familiar words that we’ve heard from the likes of Cristiane “Cyborg” Santos and Nate Marquardt in recent times also right? Coincidence?.
Overeem made his debut in the elite 265-pound field dismantling promotional cash cow Brock Lesnar and forcing him into retirement. With this one-sided beat down he punched his ticket to vie for the top crown in the heavyweight division against UFC champ Junior dos Santos.
Their title fight capped off an all-heavyweight card. While the six key participants were in Las Vegas for a press conference in March, NSAC head Keith Kizer opted to test all the participants, while his counterparts came back clean Overeem did not.
The Dutchman’s test revealed a 14-to-1 ratio of testosterone to epitestosterone, while an average human being produces 1-to-1 levels the NSAC allows up to 6-to-1 before you find yourself in hot water. Overeem had over double that amount.
The former Strikeforce and K-1 champion appeared before the NSAC on April 24 in what my fellow colleague Carlin Bardsley dubbed a kangaroo court attempting to get licensed for action on May 26 – Their key defense in this dog and pony show rested on the shoulders of the incompetence of his doctor.
Dr. Hector Oscar Molina has a troubled past. A simple Google search will find that he has an assault charge, two instances of sketchy surgery operations that left patients gravely injured and a $25,000 fine for prescribing controlled substances and dangerous drugs over the Internet.
Overeem hooked up with Molina last June in Dallas, Texas when he defeated Fabricio Werdum in the quarter-finals of the debacle that was the Strikeforce heavyweight grand prix. The behemoth looked towards Molina on the recommendation of MMA pioneer Tre Telligman.
The doctor said he could relieve Overeem’s pain, and administered an injection in January, of what he called “Tetra Mix” which he described as a mix of B-12, tetrometrozone, and testosterone. Along with this he was given a vial with two more doses, one of which he reportedly took days before his surprise test.
The vial that was shown in the NSAC court room consisted of a white bottle with a label on it. Nowhere on this label does it mention what’s in it.
Now let me get this story straight for a moment, the Dutch powerhouse visited this doctor who gave him this mix to inject into his system and he did not ask questions about what it contained? I am a pudgy sports writer without an athletic bone in my body and there’s no way in hell someone’s sticking a needle in me unless I know what it contains.
The reality is with Overeem he has 62 fights on his record between mixed martial arts and only six of them have been in North America where he could have been tested. Most of his career took place in the land of the rising sun where there is no athletic commission, making it the international waters of the fight industry.
Transforming from a 205-pound fighter with a terrible hairdo who carried around a hammer into a herculean 280-pound figure in a span of a few years cast a cloud of suspicion over his head for a long time now.
Whether or not he was injecting testosterone or whatever else into his system when he won his DREAM or K-1 championships I cannot confirm nor deny, but for this very instance he has made a mistake and the testimony between he and Dr. Molina is contradictory and doesn’t add up.
The defense of “I don’t know and better, blame the Spanish Dr. Nick Riviera doppelganger” isn’t enough to deem you innocent in my books. When you are an athlete who must abide by a list of strict rules, one of which is to pass drug tests and if you don’t know every little thing going into your system, you are doing yourself a disservice.
