THE CANADIAN PRESS
NEW YORK — Nate (The Great) Marquardt said he failed his medical for a weekend UFC fight because of high testosterone levels.
But the veteran mixed martial arts fighter said he was under doctor’s treatment for low testosterone and that he got off the medication in question when his testosterone numbers looked high as he prepared for Sunday’s main event in Pittsburgh.
Marquardt said the levels were gradually going down but didn’t get below the allowable limit in time for Saturday’s weigh-ins.
"At the end of the day he just didn’t make the (permissible) number," Marquardt’s manager, Lex McMahon told "The MMA Hour."
"He has nothing to hide," he added.
Marquardt, who was cut by the UFC after failing the medical, said he should have taken action to monitor his testosterone levels better.
"I messed up. There are things I should have done," said the emotional fighter who apologized to the fans.
"I feel so bad for everyone. I hope they can forgive me," he added.
Marquardt said he went to the doctor last August after feeling sluggish, awful, and irritable.
"I knew something was wrong. I felt like I was overtraining, when that wasn’t the case."
The prognosis was a low testosterone level.
"He recommended for me to go on hormone replacement therapy," he told "The MMA Hour."
Marquardt said he told the UFC and started the treatment — even though he was hesitant.
He fought Dan Miller in New Jersey in March after applying for a therapeutic use exemption, which state officials granted. But they asked him to take three more drug tests after going off treatment for eight weeks following the fight — to determine if the treatment was needed.
A doctor then reviewed the results and confirmed the low testosterone levels, Marquardt said.
He went on a more aggressive treatment three weeks ahead of the Story fight. Two weeks in, he took a blood test that showed high levels. His doctor told him to go off the treatment in the hope that the level would return to normal in time for the fight.
"We knew that I had to be within range," said Marquardt, calling it one of the most stressful weeks in his life. "Obviously I should have requested testing earlier. That’s one of the biggest mistakes I made."
Tests showed the levels were going down but a subsequent test on Saturday, the day of the weigh-ins, was above the range permitted by the state athletic commission, which suspended him.
That immediately drew the ire of the UFC.
"Not only is he out of this fight and out of the main event (of the card), he will no longer be with the UFC," president Dana White said in a video posted on Twitter.
Marquardt had been due to face Rick (The Horror) Story, who had replaced the injured Anthony (Rumble) Johnson. Instead, Pennsylvania native Charlie Brenneman stepped in and beat Story in an upset.
The 32-year-old Marquardt (34-10-2 including 10-4 in the UFC) had been due to make his debut at 170 pounds after campaigning as a middleweight.
He isn’t the first fighter to run afoul of state commissions due to high testosterone levels. Middleweight Chael Sonnen was suspended in California after failing a UFC 117 drug test last summer. He argued he had been prescribed a testosterone replacement treatment but was still suspended.
Marquardt was suspended in 2005 by the Nevada State Athletic Commission after testing positive for high levels of nandrolone, an anabolic steroid. He blamed it on an over-the-counter supplements and served a five-month suspension.
