Baroni case highlights CSAC flaws
Phil Baroni says he spent $20,000 to clear his name, lost sponsors, and believed he comes out of his steroid suspension with a damaged reputation.
The MMA fighter had has year-long sentence reduced to six months at the Oct. 31 meeting of the California State Athletic Commision in Los Angeles.
Baroni also believes lost one six-figure payday for not being able to fight on the Nov. 16 Strikeforce event.
Baroni noted the case of boxer James Toney, who presented no evidence in his August defense other than saying he didn't take the steroids for which he tested positive. Toney got the same suspension reduction Baroni did. And unlike Baroni, who had never tested positive previously, it was Toney's second violation.
While Baroni's appeal was settled, the other fighters scheduled to have their appeals heard last week have been postponded to a later date, originally reported as Nov. 13. But the appeal date is in question because they have to find a date where all key parties are available. Hearings for UFC lightweight champion Sean Sherk, Kazuhiro Nakamura (who tested positive for marijuana on the Sept. 22 UFC show in Anaheim) and Adam Smith (who tested positive for marijuana and cocaine on the September 29 Strikeforce show in Beverly Hills) will be held at that time.
A key piece of evidence filed by Sherk’s attorney, Howard Jacobs, that will be discussed at the next meeting is that Sherk paid for testing of several of the supplements he was taking prior to his July 7 title defense against Hermes Franca with Dr. Don H. Catlin, President of Anti-Doping Research, Inc., one of the country's foremost authorities on the subject.
In an Aug. 24 test on Xyience Xtrme Joint Formula, a supplement that is a major sponsor of both the UFC and Sherk, five capsules were examined, four of which were clean and one of which was found to contain 1-androstenedione.
While the name should sound familiar – androstenedione was the steroid precursor that gained worldwide attention in 1998 when Mark McGwire was found using it during his home run record chase – this is not the same thing. The technical name for the McGwire supplement is 4-antrostenedione, while 1-androstenedione is part of the testosterone family.
Xyience officials have said they will be halting shipments of the product pending their own investigation. While this is evidence of tainted supplements, an excuse that is now commonly used by athletes who test positive, this may not help Sherk's case. 1-androstenedione would not cause a positive for Nandrolone, which is what was found in Sherk's urine.
Oliver Catlin of Anti-Doping Research, Inc., noted the tainted supplement defense has become a huge problem in the world of drug testing. He believes in most cases it's used as an excuse, but there are some cases where well-intentioned athletes who believe they are not doing anything wrong can get caught. He blamed the lack of FDA regulations on the supplement industry as a huge problem that needs to be rectified.
At first, CSAC's Bill Douglas felt the Baroni ruling, combined with the Toney ruling, threatened the entire viability of the new program. Later he said they are just going to have to learn from the meeting, and in particular, have a stricter policy on chain-of-command forms and learn to tighten up the procedure so the punishment can hold up in the appeals process.
Douglas does think that the message this has sent is that fighters who are honest and admit to their mistakes have gotten full punishment, while those who protest, in his belief not told the truth, have gotten lesser punishment. He feels, going forward, that nearly every fighter who tests positive will appeal, which will lead to endless hearings if the rate of failures doesn't start to decrease.
