Schaub: No incentive for fighters not to take PEDs

In the wake of the ongoing Anderson Silva steroid saga, there's one UFC fighter who insists that there's no incentive for young fighters not to take performance enhancing drugs (PEDs) as they embark on their MMA career.

During a rant on his own podcast, "The Fighter and the Kid," (as transcribed by MMAfighting.com's David St. Martin), heavyweight Brendan Schaub talked about MMA's lax approach at dissuading fighters from pumping their bodies full of steroids.

Listen, I would love to hear an argument for why I shouldn't do steroids. Give me one. Let's say I take steroids and test positive. Say I'm a young kid (getting to the UFC) and I ask my dad, "Dad, why shouldn't I take steroids?" Can I say, "Well, you'll never be world champ." That's not true. Anderson Silva's a world champ. "Well, you'll never fight for a title." That's not true.

Chael Sonnen tested positive, fought for a title. "Well, you'll never be 'The Ultimate Fighter' coach." Nope, Chael Sonnen, Anderson Silva. "Well, you'll never be a main event." No, not true. Alistair Overeem's a main event. Bigfoot Silva's a main event. "Well, listen, you might get fired." No, not really. Guys pop all the time. If it's cheating, everyone else is doing it and they're getting rewarded for it.

Though Schaub maintains that he's a clean fighter, he does worry about the lingering effects of the damage caused by someone fighting with the advantages afforded to them by PEDs.

"Anderson Silva landed some shots on Nick Diaz," Schaub said. "Those shots, I promise you, are going to catch up with Nick down the road. Now, we don't know how severe those shots were but I guarantee it's more severe when a guy's on steroids."