Comments on: Friday flame wars: Barnett vs. White

By: Ivan Trembow

Ivan Trembow — Mon, 03 Sep 2007 07:16:35 +0000

“It is therefore funny and ironic that it would be an indian casino that’s forcing the legislated but less involved state commissions to become more closely involved in actually regulating the sport.”

I couldn’t agree with you more. Both the Mohegan Tribe’s athletic council and Texas’ quasi-athletic-commission have, in the past, treated big organizations (as in UFC-sized organizations) with kid gloves.

Now all of a sudden we’ve got the Mohegan Tribe shutting down entire shows because of fighters failing their medicals… and good for them… better late than never on doing a thorough job with suspensions and enforcement, but the real test is whether they will do the same thing with the biggest promotions. They don’t have the best record in that regard, having reduced Phil Baroni’s suspension for repeatedly swinging at a referee from twelve months to three months.

As for the Texas commission, they absolutely shirked their responsibilities when they failed to drug-test anyone at UFC 69, just as the UFC did when they didn’t respond by drug-testing anyone themselves. It wasn’t until it came out publicly that there was no drug testing of any kind at UFC 69 (or at UFC 70 in unregulated England) that the UFC publicly pledged again to conduct its own drug testing at events where an athletic commission won’t do it, or where there is no athletic commission.

It is both remarkable and (as far as I’m aware) unprecedented for one athletic commission (the Mohegan’s) to call another athletic commission (Texas’) and basically say, “You really, really need to do drug testing on this particular show because of some ‘red flags’,” especially when there was only one fighter that the two shows in question have in common.

By: Ivan Trembow

Ivan Trembow — Mon, 03 Sep 2007 07:07:55 +0000

“People are surprised the Mohegans are hardasses? Uhh, guys? How long you actually been following the sport? ‘Cause its showing.”

Yeah, they’re very strict, all right. They proved that when they reduced Phil Baroni’s suspension for repeatedly swinging at a referee from twelve months to three months.

By: Luke

Luke — Mon, 03 Sep 2007 06:30:32 +0000

Jeff – I thought when I was on the show that I tried to be fair to UFC and to Dana White. Maybe I have a bad memory, but thats what I remember. And, to be honest, I haven’t been on an episode in…oh…four months, so how often do you really listen?

By: 45 Huddle

45 Huddle — Sat, 01 Sep 2007 01:57:02 +0000

Once again…. Here is some real news concerning steroids….

http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/news/story?id=2999994

Where is the upheaval of this only being a 4 game suspension?

By: Rollo the Cat

Rollo the Cat — Sat, 01 Sep 2007 01:03:20 +0000

Kevin Iole is what mainstream sports journalism is all about. I have known a few reporters. They get friendly with a player, coach or owner and they get inside info in return for favorable treatment. It happens everywhere with so called respectable journalists.

Bismarck used to have money set aside that he called the “Lizard Fund”. It was for bribing journalists.

By: The Gaijin

The Gaijin — Sat, 01 Sep 2007 00:00:50 +0000

Right, right – sorry about that…I always screw up the math when talking about that. And you’re correct on the other one as well, laziness on my part to just say testosterone in a broad/generalized way.

As for Babalu – I can’t really argue with them firing him, the guy was going to be a PR disaster for all the dog-fighting/bloodsport decriers. Just saying that there’s more of that double standard with BJ Penn getting absolutely no reprimand whatsoever.

By: Jonny Mudd

Jonny Mudd — Fri, 31 Aug 2007 23:32:32 +0000

I can say from personal first hand experience that Kevin Iole as a ’serious’ MMA journalist is a Dana White wet-dream come true. Iole is the Larry King of UFC reporting. He may as well be on Zuffa payroll. His past few months of reporting on some of the major issues currently facing MMA has been nothing short of embarassing. At a time when a journalist with some integrity is needed to really question Zuffa and Dana White on issues that will have long-term consquences for the future of MMA across the world, what we get with Iole is a hack given special access due to the fact that he is a pro-Zuffa pro-Dana White keyboard ‘warrior’ who does not have the background or credentials needed to really challange the myth-making machine that is the current UFC management. A few untrue/confused statements from Dana and this man becomes a believer instantly. If you’re Dana White you hope Yahoo employ Iole for a long long time to come.

By: ukiro

ukiro — Fri, 31 Aug 2007 22:28:34 +0000

@ The Gaijin: It’s not 12x the normal level – An olympic athlete apparantly isn’t likely to go beyond 0,2ng/ml, so Sherk’s 12ng/ml would be 60x the normal level. And the substance is nandrolone, not testosterone.

By: Fightlinker.com

Fightlinker.com — Fri, 31 Aug 2007 22:27:34 +0000

He actually had 60 times the normal level. Hey, you’d know that if the MMA media did a good job of educating people rather than just spitting up what Dana White says. Anyways, that was the cherry on the shit sundae that was this day. I’m gonna go masturbate to battlecade 3 and cry now.

By: The Gaijin

The Gaijin — Fri, 31 Aug 2007 22:10:16 +0000

Then go read Kevin Iole’s blog and stop reading those writer’s opinion pieces and then complain about it.

As for Sherk’s appeal – I’m still interested in hearing how he “accidentally”/unknowingly had 12x the normal human level of testosterone in his system. Call me cynical but I just don’t see it, but if he somehow gets them to pull one of those James Toney shady reduced suspensions we’ll have an idea of how much pull Zuffa has with the commission.

As for Babalu, he admitted it which was not the smartest thing but it’s NOT AT ALL different then when BJ Penn did it.