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[Ramma]

According to Royce, his concious is clear, so he doesn't need a commission to clear him to let him fight.. he will fight he is ready.

MMA legend Royce Gracie took time out to catch us up on what he's been doing since his win over Kazushi Sakuraba at K-1 HERO's DYNAMITE!! USA. Check out what he had to say about his performance, his future plans and more as he talks about the suspension he received from the California State Athletic Commission and why he didn't bother to protest it.


TN: How are you? What's new with you?


RG: I am okay, thanks. Just been doing a lot of traveling all over the world doing seminars. When I fight, I usually fall behind on my seminars and they start to add up so have been trying to catch up with as many as I can before the end of the year.


TN: In your last bout with Kazushi Sakuraba, you were suspended by the California State Athletic Commission for testing positive for the steroid Nandrolone. You've always been one to emphasize technique over strength and have maintained your innocence from the start. Can we get your thoughts on this situation?


RG: There is no situation. I said I didn't do it and that's all there is to it. As for actions, well look at Sean Sherk. He spent all that time and money on arguing over it and the result is the same. They did not believe him. I know what I did and did not do. I don't need a commission to clear me. I am clear in my own conscious so instead of fighting this and making a big deal out of it, I just let it go. That's it.


TN: In regards to Sakuraba, how did you feel your fight with him went?


RG: I think the fight went well. It was not a fight for the fans maybe, but the rules that are placed here in the States sometimes do not allow a fighter to open up, especially when it comes to grappling. Look how many jiu-jitsu fighters that have gone against wrestlers and totally dominated the fight, but because the wrestler took them down over and over, he gets the win. So when I was building a strategy for this fight, I was doing it around the rules that were in place at the time. As you can see, it worked.


TN: Will we see Royce Gracie vs Kazushi Sakuraba 3? This is a fight MMA fans would love to see.


RG: Don't know. That is not up to me.


TN: When do you plan on fighting next and is there anyone specific in mind?


RG: No one specific. As for fighting next, don't know yet, I have to catch up with a lot of business that I had to put aside to train. It's starting to pile into 2020 already (laughing). But if and when the opportunity presents itself, I will think about it at that time.


TN: You've had such a great career in this sport. What is your key to longevity?


RG: I keep myself in shape all year long. I eat right, I don't smoke, never had a drink!


TN: In all of your fights, you are always ready to go. Do you have any tips for the mental side of fighting?


RG: The mental side of fighting is done during training because your fight will never be as hard, both mentally and physically, as it is in training camp so if you survive that, the fight is easy.


TN: Anything you would like to say to your fans in closing?


RG: I want to thank them for years of support.

http://www.fighthype.com/pages/content1526.html

[ufobydeath]

LMAO!
This guy's head is so far up his ass...

[Rufio]

There's a credible case that he didn't do it. Nandrolone testing is in need of a serious overhual. This has been pointed out by several experts and in several sports. If it were testosterone testing it would be more cut and dry.

[ufobydeath]

Originally Posted by Rufio

There's a credible case that he didn't do it. Nandrolone testing is in need of a serious overhual. This has been pointed out by several experts and in several sports. If it were testosterone testing it would be more cut and dry.

Yeah, but still... his test was off the charts and not questionable like Sherk's. Also his behaviour is kind of condemning; it's like he knows that he won't stand a chance anyway.

[Rufio]

Yeah but there have been off the charts tests by people who are clean before. I don't know if Royce's would be a record of not, but what I recall experts saying was that in order to remove ALL doubt regarding Nandrolone testing, it would have to be set at 100 mg/di, which I believe is far above where Royce tested. Aside from that, there is nothing close to a consensus on what the exact upper limit should be. It's complicated also by how "electrolye drinks" and other supplements can convert to 19-norendosterone without converting to actual Nandrolone. I can try to find the link again regarding experts if you want to see it.


I really just don't trust Nandrolone testing in general now. It's convicting WAY too many athletes who swear they're clean in different sports, as well as the confirmed cases of false tests like 43 false tests at the same time.

[ufobydeath]

Sure give me the links, I'd love to read it!

You've got a great point, so rep to you for that, but I still believe he did it just from the way he's acting. Hell if nothing else he could've tried to convince his fans that he wasn't juicing by fighting it (like Sherk did) but he doesn't even care. It could just mean that he's a douchebag but I'm sticking with the roid theory until it's proven otherwise.

[Rufio]

Here's probably the best article I've found with the most citations of legit scientific studies:


http://www.thinkmuscle.com/ARTICLES/...drug-tests.htm

Thus, since NA and NE are endogenous steroids, it’s not the presence of nandrolone metabolites that constitutes a positive drug test for nandrolone. As such, we need to be able to distinguish the natural endogenous products from the exogenous ones, including the anabolic steroid nandrolone and the various prohormones such as norandrostenedione and norandrostenediol.

To this end, the IOC and other sporting federations have decided to establish a urinary threshold concentration above which constitutes a positive doping test for the anabolic steroid nandrolone and/or one or more of the prohormones. And this is where the major problem lies.

Unfortunately for the athletes, establishing a urinary threshold level for nandrolone metabolites is currently a difficult and speculative process, due largely to the lack of scientific knowledge within this area.

For example, endogenous production has been shown in several studies to vary and has been found to be as high as 37 ng per ml in male subjects. (Debruyckere et al., 1990) No specific studies have been undertaken to determine excretion rates in females, although it has been demonstrated that natural female urinary NA concentrations are significantly higher than males (Ciardi et al. 1999).

Use of a threshold level also becomes difficult when environmental and physiological stress results in changes in the excretion rate of steroidal metabolites. Recent work by Le Bizec et al. (1999) has demonstrated that exercise can result in significant increases in nandrolone metabolite concentrations in voided urine. It was found that NA abundance within a soccer players urine increased by 300% during the course of a game.

As well, preliminary data from a study in the UK has shown that urinaly levels of NA may vary secondary to exercise, the use of non-banned nutritional supplements, and perhaps even from sickness, another form of stress for the body. (see Appendix 1 below)

Unfortunately, due to the lack of scientific knowledge in this area, it is not possible to conclusively state the natural range of nandrolone metabolite excretion in males or females, under both natural and stress conditions, with or without the use of various non-banned nutritional supplements. As a result, it is also impossible to set a scientifically or legally sustainable threshold level above which a doping offence can be proved to have been committed.

Besides all of the above there is the issue of the presence or contamination, intentional or not, of an athlete’s food, drink, and nutritional supplements by compounds that can result in a false positive nandrolone drug test. For example, a recent study (Le Bizec et al., 2000) has shown that this can occur from the consumption of boar meat.

As such, it would be both logical and prudent, and a reasonable compromise, to conclude that until we can be close to 100% certain that the nor steroids found in an athlete’s urine sample are not endogenous in origin, a drug test showing the presence of less than 100 ng/cc of NA should be deemed suspicious and warrant follow-up and discussion, and should not automatically be deemed a positive drug test for the use of exogenous nandrolone, or for the use of any exogenous nor steroids.

[ufobydeath]

Good read man, I'll read through the entire thing when I have a little more time on my hands than now!

[enthb]

Im not sold on the testing either. These guys are elite level athletes and have been around for quite sometime. They probably also have people around them that are quite informed about what is being tested for. With that being said nandralone would be the last drug anyone being tested would use. There are several choices that would be easy to have out of the system if you knew the time of testing. Thats why I cant but help to think there may be something strange here.

[TravelinMonty]

I don't know why but I used to love the guy and I just keep losing a bit of affinity towards him as time passes.