Alas, not until September. My site will be completely redone and will debut in the fall, but until the transformation there’s nothing I can do.

Perhaps Sanchez vs. Sakurai is still on? Who knows at this point.

The question is, does the UFC want to step up and take drug testing in the sport to the next level, to lead and set an example for other combat sports and sports in general. To essentially rid the sport of the use of these banned substances, more rigorous testing is obviously required. Anything less then is just paying lip service to a mandate by a commission.

Talk about ridding sports of performance enhancing drugs is just that. Talk. Its essentially impossible becuase of the difficulty everyone has doing tests for blood doping, HGH, and designer steroids. Ultimately, they’re operating within the confines of a regulated sport already. If there’s a complaint, talk to your local state government about changing the bylaws of the sporting commission.

Cycling is in the doldrums as a sport, relatively speaking, because of all the doping scandals their “stars” have faced over the recent years. Why bring that negative attention to the sport of MMA when we already have so many other avenues of negative attention pointed at us?

Because there is already testing being done? Essentially, whatever you find now with the tests is what you’re gonna find when you do spot checks on guys. Its not as if they’re using some magic steroid that just disappears prior to game time. Besides, even if the UFC does drug testing, and, for shits and giggles, the IFL and EXC follow suit, there’s still hundreds of other promoters world wide who would rather pocket the money than test. Hell, if the UFC is only paying its headliners 5 figures guaranteed money, what makes you think they’ll spend millions on a vast IOC based drug testing system?

The question is, does the UFC want to step up and take drug testing in the sport to the next level, to lead and set an example for other combat sports and sports in general. To essentially rid the sport of the use of these banned substances, more rigorous testing is obviously required. Anything less then is just paying lip service to a mandate by a commission.

Cycling is in the doldrums as a sport, relatively speaking, because of all the doping scandals their “stars” have faced over the recent years. Why bring that negative attention to the sport of MMA when we already have so many other avenues of negative attention pointed at us?

I think all of this means very little overall because Sherdog is simply looking for exposure. Based on the poor relationship they have with the UFC, IFL was likely their next best option at a much lower cost.

On a side note – Luke, is there any chance that you won’t have to be logged in on Bloody Elbow to leave comments? I would like to get involved in some of the conversations but just don’t want another account to keep track of.

Thanks for the response. I haven’t decided whether I feel Sherdog’s coverage is decidedly biased with respect to the IFL. I just don’t know if news outlets should be advertising with a single fight league.

Which brings me to another point: my site isn’t a news site. I run a blog. I am not a news wire. I try to be on top of the news by posting information as its available, but very rarely do I take the initiative to break news. I have a parasitic relationship with the news: they report, I comment. For better or worise, I comment.

For the Sherdog – IFL post, I used whatever information was available and issued conjecture: nothing more, nothing less. I left plenty of room for people to add whatever information I was lacking. I still feel the relationship between Sherdog and the IFL to be dubious, but that’s just guess. I’m just commenting with what information exists. It’s an opinion, not hard news.