Mixed martial arts (MMA) fighter Justin Levens and his wife Sarah McLean-Levens were found dead in an apparent murder-suicide on Wednesday, December 17, 2009. An autopsy was conducted on Thursday but investigators are still awaiting the results of toxicology tests to determine if the deceased had used any drugs prior to their deaths. Yet, bloggers and writers are jumping on the steroid bandwagon blaming anabolic steroids as a potential culprit for the tragedy (”Justin Levens Suspected of Killing Wife and Himself,” December 18).

Wrestling is a sport that has brutal action, and often an even more brutal aftermath for fighters. Mixed martial arts, which is becoming a powerful alternative to wrestling, appears to be no different. Drugs, steroids and a bad mental state outside the ring may be just as prominent in mixed martial arts. That may have been the case for former competitor Justin Levens, who is suspected to have killed himself after killing his wife.

A few have approached the Levens murder-suicide tragedy without such steroid hysterics. Fightlinker thinks people need to stop focusing so much on steroids while ignoring painkillers which are a “bigger elephant in the room” (”Stop trying to disown Justin Levens,” December 19).

Levens was a mixed martial artist who was hooked on painkillers. Pain med addiction is a serious problem in our sport, and it’s only getting worse. What happened with Levens was obviously a rare and horrible outcome, and it’s not like we’re expecting James Irvin and Joe Riggs to go off like ticking time bombs any second now. But we might want to maybe consider looking into the painkiller issue. I don’t know what can be done, but at this point they’re a bigger elephant in the room than steroids are.

Sherdog makes note of several events that point to potential painkiller use/abuse by Justin Leven aka “The Executioner” Read more