Vitor Belfort reportedly began testosterone replacement therapy, or TRT, in 2011, after Anderson Silva landed an iconic finishing kick to his face in a middleweight title fight. Following a battery of tests, a “UFC doctor” informed Belfort that his energy was low and recommended he begin taking doses of testosterone.
Other fighters had been informed by doctors working with the UFC, or unaffiliated anti-aging specialists, that TRT would be suitable to address such problems as low energy; the UFC generally kept tabs on fighter use. When Chael Sonnen infamously tested positive for an elevated testosterone-to-epitestosterone ratio in California in 2010, UFC doctors and executives, including Dana White, were actively monitoring his blood work. The promotion, it turned, had issued the fighter an “exemption” to use testosterone, a year before any commission was asked to issue a similar hall pass.
This is how the UFC came to possess Belfort’s test results.
The .pdf encompasses a facsimile transmittal sheet from “Dr. Pierce” of Ageless Forever, one of several anti-aging facilities clustered around the 6000 block of S. Rainbow Blvd in Las Vegas, to “Greg” regarding “Vitor Belfort - lab results,” as well as the first two pages of a three-page report from the Laboratory Corporation of America, or LabCorp. It can be viewed in full here:
View: http://www.scribd.com/doc/282308614/Belfort-document
A detail from lab results the UFC mistakenly forwarded to third parties.
This document shows that Belfort’s free testosterone levels were high—two and a half times above the average for a man his age, in fact. At a time when the TRT exemption as a form of sanctioned doping was becoming a major issue in the sport, the document rightly raised suspicions among those who received it.
Though the results made their way through MMA circles, they have, rather amazingly, not seen the light of day until now.
One prominent fighter said that while he was not emailed the results directly from the UFC, he nonetheless saw them, via someone not on the original recipient list, and came to the conclusion that Belfort had cheated and that the UFC had covered it up. This sentiment was echoed in numerous off-the-record conversations with people in the industry.
“please delete ASAP!!!!!”
Sept. 4, 2012, got interesting at 3:01 p.m. Pacific time for the people who received the .pdf from the UFC. A paralegal working for the UFC had meant to send an email with the subject “Vitor Belfort Labs” to three UFC executives. Instead, much of the known MMA world, including several people with whom the promotion openly feuded in the past, received it.
At 3:04, the paralegal sent out an email attempting to recall the original message.
At 3:55, a third email explained that the original had been sent in error and that the attempt to recall had come too late. Recipients were asked to “please disregard the e-mail, please delete ASAP!!!!!”
At 7:16, recipients got a memorandum from Ike Lawrence Epstein, UFC’s executive vice president and general counsel at the time.
Full story here: A Sketchy Drug Test Didn’t Stop Vitor Belfort From Fighting At UFC 152
