A ton of journalists in the MMA media, of which I'm not really a part of, I'm a blogger, are all over the oxygen canister controversy surrounding KJ Noons and King Mo. These tweets just came down the line from Josh Gross:
This is what I learned w/one phone call and confirmed w/one text regarding this faux story about the 02 canisters: Mo Lawal's mgmt ... OK'd use of 02 w/Texas commission, ringside doctor, referee (McCarthy got ok from commission) & Strikeforce. Noons in same lockerroom.
Here how I feel about this and that's the key phrase. I feel like they were still doing something they should not be able to do. Just because they were allowed to do so doesn't make it right. You remember the big 1998 home run season that Mark McGwire had? Remember how he did it, with all those steroids he was using? What he was doing at the time was totally legal. He didn't break any rules. He was crucified for it just the same because people understood it was wrong. He could have went to Bud Selig and got the okay to use what he was using, and he would have at the time because it wasn't on any banned list that MLB had at that time, and it would not have mattered. He still would have been cheating.
I completely stand by my statement in regards to what these two did. These canisters gave them a boost, even if it is a small one, right before their fights began. The guys they were fighting did not get that same boost. That means they had an edge going into the fight that was obtained through means not of their own. This should not be allowed. Again, that is my stance and my view point on this issue. Just wanted to clarify my previous statements.
MMA Junkie is running a story now in which King Mo says the following:
While he might have been dumb, one thing he wasn't was enhanced, which is what many observers called him after he was spotting sucking oxygen from a canister between rounds (he has an endorsement with the company that makes the breathing aid).
"No effect, man," he said of his O2 use during the fight. "People want to make a big deal about it, but it's not a big deal. I used it in training camp for a week, (and) it helped me slow my heart rate down and focus my breathing – that's about it. I could have done it without the oxygen can."
If it had no effect then why would you be using it? That makes zero sense to me. I'm not on any crusade against Noons or Lawal, in fact I enjoy them both and like watching them fight, but that's bogus. You wouldn't use something if it had no effect. It's funny because he says it had no effect then goes on to state the effects it had for him in training. A bit odd to me but that's his story.