Speaking of TRT shadiness, it seems that Nate Marquardt had even more in common with Chael Sonnen than I originally suspected. According to Luke Thomas of SBNation.com, Marquardt, like Sonnen last summer with the California State Athletic Commission (CSAC), never applied for a therapeutic use exemption for his TRT in Pennsylvania:
Nate Marquardt, who was not allowed to compete at UFC on Versus 4 by the Pennsylvania Athletic Commission because he failed to meet stated requirements about medically-administered testosterone use for what he claims is a necessity, actually never attempted to have the use cleared through a Therapeutic Use Exemption (TUE) program. Marquardt's plan was simply to alert the commission he was on testosterone replacement therapy, have his levels tested and achieve their general clearance. A TUE program would have likely applied more rigorous standards related to medical necessity, timing of use, verification of proper use and a battery of other screens.
Marquardt's suspension hearing takes place next week and the Pennsylvania commission will make a decision on whether to lift his suspension by July 13th. According to Dave Meltzer, Marquardt's management believe they will have no trouble getting it lifted:
Marquardt's people believe that since he tested within normal range of testosterone on 6/26 (a day or two after he could have been sanctioned) that they should remove his current indefinite suspension.
However, nothing that they've said convinces me that Marquardt didn't cheat. Just because he was clean by fight time, is not convincing evidence that he wasn't illegally super dosing his testosterone cycles to get a performance advantage on the night. A clean test that comes in late is absolutely meaningless, so Marquardt deserves a longer suspension than he's received so far. Hopefully the Pennsylvania Athletic Commission doesn't screw up Marquardt's hearing like California did the first time round with Sonnen.