Royce tests positive for steroids

"let me just say that Royce strayed from his roots trying to become a modern mma'er with his kickboxing, new agressiveness, etc. and playing with new rules that completely made impossible his original strategy of cooking his opponent and instead having to push the action using strength and power."

He didn't stray Fats. New rules, new format, and infinitely better competition FORCED Royce to become the "Fairtex kickboxer" you think he has become.

None of those changes, however, forced Royce to become a steroid user. Using steroids is a choice you make each time you take it. It is a choice you make on your assessment of your physical abilities, not on whether rounds have been introduced, or your opponent can punch/kick/grapple.

There's a difference between changing a fight strategy because of the evolution of a sport, and taking PED's because your body can't keep up with that evolution.

On a lighter note:

a friend of mine just told me that Rickson has to defeat 400 more opponents to make up for this one. LOL!!

i can understand why he would do it. still, embarrassing news for
royce and his family.

I was thinking the same thing, but it's interesting to say "with modern MMA rules being what they are, there is no way for Royce to win" I think this is due to his blindly following his family's (Rorian's ?) propaganda that GJJ was all you needed...no cross training in other arts or hardcore conditioning.


I have to disagree. I think the reason Royce was successful early in his career was the result of no time limits, his opponents being clueless AND the fact that he'd been doing Jits for his entire life. He was basically unathletic and physically weak. With modern MMA rules, you HAVE to have some athletic ability and you HAVE to be conditioned and you HAVE to have some cross-training; basically Royce, as he was back in UFC #1, would not have been able to win so he had to change. However, Royce is almost 40 or thereabouts. At that age, it's kind of hard (if not impossible) to start from scratch and develop athletic ability, strength and skill in some art in which you are cross-trained. There is no way that at his age, Royce can suddenly become an explosive fighter with awesome stand-up. It's just not going to happen. He's basically playing "catch up" to everyone he will end up competing against, guys who didn't refuse to accept the inevitability of rules changing in MMA and changed their training/methodology to account for this. That's why I think his taking steroids (and trying to turn himself into a kick-boxer...with little to show for it) was an act of desperation which is why I think it's so sad. If he had just retired from competing and turned to helping to train the next generation of fighters, he would've had an awesome legacy. Now it's tainted in a way.

Arghh...I havent read all of the responses, so it may have been said, but here is the way I see it.

Royce is a car that's built for cross-country races, not sprints around a track. His style of jiujitsu is vastly different from Jacare's or Marcelo Garcia's, for example, in that he was raised on Helio's strategy of a relaxed, defensive game that was usually decided on the ground because there werent any stand ups.

Today's MMA is a totally different beast. BJJers now have to contend with 5 minute rounds, stand ups, AND phenomenal athletes who are training in the very same art (in most cases). It's just a different world.

Royce did something unethical, but he didnt give up on jiu-jitsu. He did what he felt he had to, at 40, to compete with today's MMA. He wasnt going to be able to relearn his jiujitsu (with a more aggressive Jacare-like strategy), and he would almost never win with the strategy he was raised with, so it seems he tried to take a short cut.

I disagree with his decision, but it doesnt taint anything he has done prior to this fight, nor does it mean that he has betrayed jiujitsu.

^well articulated Andre

Andre is correct.  Not a smart move by Royce, but nothing about jiu-jitsu has changed.

the reason michael jordan's comeback failed?

HE WAS TOO OLD.

so is royce. i'm sick of seeing the "senior tour" of MMA.

there should be no excuses. he cheated, got caught and disgraced himself, his family, his students, his fans, etc.

all he fights for now is money/greed - plain and simple, not honor, not "to still compete", not anything but greed.

Well said Andre.

I was inspired to learn BJJ after watching Royce kick ass in the early UFCs.

To learn that he used 'roids is really sad and disappointing...

^With all that said, steroids go completely against the philosphy of gracie/brazilian jiu jitsu. The whole point of jiu jitsu is to use leverage and technique to overcome a stronger, larger opponent. After a few years in the game, you start to apply that philosophy to your daily life as well. Something about using the juice when you are supposed to be the living embodyment of that philosophy just makes me feel a little cheated.

Wait until wrestlers start flooding into no-gi. Then we are going to see that explosive athleticism and strength matter a lot. Every pound of weight matters a lot, in a match.

I'm against crazy cutting of weight, and I'm against steroid use in general. I train hard and never put on muscle. The best I can do to get an even match is diet so my walking around weight is as low as possible. I don't have explosive athleticism but I train for that as much as I can. If I don't, I'll get consistently smashed.

Of course technique matter. But size and weight are an automatic advantage that it takes a lot of technique to overcome. We can't be in denial about that.

Someone pointed out that using the steroids wasn't the big mistake for Royce; it was not being able to pass the test. Meaning he wasn't in control of his program. Agreed.

Meaning he wasn't in control of his program.


Maybe he WAS...and wouldn't take advice from those who knew. He had some incentive to keep the number of people who knew about his steroid use as small as possible.

Don't put the blame on modern MMA rules. Royce chose this path and now must face the consequences. He could have been using them for a while too. I doubt this is his first time.

FB,

oh man, that was the funniest thing i have ever seen you post! oh man...

"He must have been using the Tim Sylvia steroids because I sure as hell cant tell he's on them. "

Are you kidding?

I have a student that fights amateur MMA at my gym. He's 45 years old (should be fighting again in August). The guy lives the healthiest lifestyle out of anyone I know and he is fully aware that being a heavyweight, many of the guys (even at the amateur level) on steroids.

He told me how its a tempting thing, but he would always cite Royce as the example for why he didn't need it.

Royce was a role model to many older natural fighters as well the weaker athletes who's only weapon was technique.

Maybe its too idealistic to believe that Royce could compete at high levels in MMA without steroids - if thats true then I wish he simply hadn't taken the fight with Sakuraba.

"you have obviously never sparred with people who have reached extremely high technical level... "

Erm, fail!

I never said that technique was not hugely important. Try reading what I wrote. I'll save you scrolling up,

'The greater the differential in technique the less that strength will matter, you do however need a basic level of physical attributes otherwise your technique will be useless.'

So when I have sparred with people like, Royce, Royler, Roger, Felipe Souza etc they don't need to use any strength, they can smash me using only technique, this is because they are way better than me. When however they are sparring with people on a similar level physical attributes also come into it.

Add into this the age of Royce (and Sak) and it's no huge surprise that they need some help in preparing for a fight.

I would just like to encourage everyone to keep an open mind here. There may be some kind of explanation as to why he tested positive for a steroid derivative. Did he receive some kind of medical treatment? Was he prescribed a medication who's metabolite resembles that of the steroid? Please give him the benefit of the doubt until we hear the whole story beyond the blood test.

The question is though, is how long has he been using them for?
The vast majority of his matches in the last few years have been in Japan (bar Hughes), and we all know how slack they are with testing over there.

I really don't think that this should be frowned upon so badly...
I mean, its true, at least 75% of top level mma fighters (Josh Thompson wrote an article on it recently) have used steroids at least once in their career.
And from what i've heard, about the same goes for top level Jiu-Jitsu guys (even some of the Gracies).

I think the sport has evolved so much that the physical element is so important now, that steroids are almost a pre-requisite...

Just my 2 cents.

"I think the sport has evolved so much that the physical element is so important now, that steroids are almost a pre-requisite..."

It's not a pre-requisite if it's a banned substance for specific events.

If you get caught using it, you're basically breaking the rules.

In Japan, they allow soccer kicks and roids. Cool, go for it, and fight in those events.

But if you sign up for an event that says "no soccer kicks", and you break that rule, it doesn't matter how much of a pre-requisite it is in other events: you broke the rule for the specific event that you signed up for.

Same thing with roids: if an event bans PED's, and you get caught breaking the rules, you pay for breaking the rules.

MMA is supposed to be a grown-up sport that's not for the faint of heart. If you're not adult enough to play by the rules of an event, then don't do the event. Simple as that.