#4 Nate Marquardt
Nate Marquardt is the poster boy of steroid usage in a sport that sees rampant steroid usage throughout its upper as well as lower echelons. Marquardt has done it all right from nandrolone to Testosterone Replacement Therapy (TRT).
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He is a former Strikeforce Welterweight champion and has a martial arts base in American Kenpo (pronounced as ‘Kempo’). He started training Brazilian Jiu Jitsu (BJJ) and Karate at a young age. Although he boasts an impressive record and he is considered to be a wily MMA veteran, the insane number of times that he has been busted for Performance Enhancing Drugs (PED) usage is downright comical.
Marquardt was busted for Elevated Testosterone levels at UFC Fight Night 1 in 2005. It was later revealed that he had tested positive for the illegal PED nandrolone. Furthermore, in the year 2010, Marquardt began the highly controversial TRT procedure.
He gained a Therapeutic Use Exemption (TUE) for the usage of TRT, however, the TRT era is considered to be one of the most complicated phases in the sport of MMA. TRT was outlawed in 2013, but by then the damage was done.
Several UFC fighters such as Antonio Silva, Vitor Belfort, Nate Marquardt and others had competed several times inside the Octagon, whilst on TRT. Besides, Marquardt was embroiled in a bunch of controversies with the Pennsylvania and New Jersey State Athletic Commissions, regarding his TRT usage.
Furthermore, ever since the UFC has partnered up with the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA), Marquardt seems to have gone through a visible, physical decline as well as decline in his in-cage performances.
After the multiple occasions on which Marquardt has exhibited Elevated Testosterone levels in his drug tests, his performances under the USADA testing in the UFC are just another sign of his steroid usage and unsportsmanlike conduct towards his opponents.
What’s ironical is that on being questioned regarding his stance of PEDs in MMA, Marquardt always claims to be a clean fighter and strongly condemns the usage of steroids in combat sports. Marquardt’s steroid usage and hypocrisy lands him at number 4 on our list.