No Holds Barred: King Mo Lawal and Mike Kogan Discuss Steroids and Supplements

On this edition of No Holds Barred, host Eddie Goldman speaks with mixed martial arts fighter and former elite freestyle and college wrestler "King" Mo Lawal, and his manager, Mike Kogan.

On Tuesday, January 17, the Nevada State Athletic Commission announced that "King" Mo has tested positive for the banned steroid drostanolone, also known as Masteron, following his January 7 Strikeforce fight, a TKO victory over Lorenz Larkin. Since then, both "King" Mo and Mike Kogan have maintained that he has never knowingly taken any performance enhancing drug.

After carefully reviewing the supplements he had been taking, all purchased through public retailers, and investigating the history of all of them, they now believe that this positive drug test was the result of taking a mislabeled over-the-counter supplement. They plan to name publicly this supplement as soon as possible.

We spoke with both "King" Mo Lawal and Mike Kogan by phone late Sunday night about this terrible situation. They stressed that they have nothing to hide, want to be one hundred percent transparent, and will abide by the decision of the Nevada State Athletic Commission when they have a hearing on this matter, which will probably be in March. "King" Mo described how this mess has affected him, although he said that the outpouring of support for him and his background in wrestling have helped him get through this. He also said that he is willing to work with VADA, the Voluntary Anti-Doping Association, which conducts random and unannounced urine and blood tests of athletes, unlike the weaker testing done by the various athletic commissions. We discussed what could be done to deal with this problem of unregulated supplements being so widely available, the need for some type of independent certification and testing of these supplements, what fight promotions can do in the battle against doping, and more.

In addition, we open with a commentary on one of the key sources of this problem: the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act of 1994 (DSHEA), which prohibits the U.S. Food and Drug Administration from testing and approving these types of supplements before they reach the market. This law, passed by politicians of both major U.S. political parties following extensive lobbying by the supplement industry, never should have been passed and needs to be changed now before it does any more harm to the public, athletes of course included.

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No Holds Barred is free to listen to and is sponsored by:

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Thanks, Eddie Goldman http://eddiegoldman.com

Unfortunately this happens from time to time. I hope Mo just made a mistake.

Yes, he made a big mistake, which is why they are being so open about it now. The manufacturer and retailer belong in jail. The law needs to be changed.

nhbnews wrote:Yes, he made a big mistake, which is why they are being so open about it now. The manufacturer and retailer belong in jail. The law needs to be changed.

I feel sorry for Mo, this shouldn´t happen. Many athletes in different sports have been taking supplements they thought were legit and then they got caught for cheating.