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Good old boys network at Nevada meeting approve Josh Barnett for license

By Zach Arnold | October 31, 2013

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Back to business for the usual political fixers. Throw a party. Marc Ratner was at this morning’s Nevada State Athletic Commission meeting.

I did live-tweeting of the proceedings. A couple of items to focus on:

A dog’s breakfast of officials for the UFC show in Las Vegas in a few weeks. When I say dog’s breakfast, I mean the whole list of potential candidates that Keith Kizer came up with.

Today’s main event at the NSAC meeting was all about whether or not Josh Barnett would get approved for licensed.

We all knew he would, but the dog & pony show was excruciating to listen to. Bill Brady said that if Josh Barnett tested clean with “enhanced” drug testing that he would be a trailblazer and build a bigger legacy.

Now, when Georges St. Pierre wanted VADA testing, UFC thought that was “weird.” Well, guess who’s picking up the tab for the random drug testing of Josh Barnett?

As for the dog & pony show, the same athletic commission that hands out permission slips for testosterone (anabolic steroids) is the first to get haughty when a fighter fails a standard drug test for steroids. Josh Barnett had two lawyers with him present at the meeting. For the most part, he tried to put on a charm offensive but it was painful listening to him try to fall on his sword by saying that despite whatever the circumstances were regarding his failed drug tests that he would take full responsibility for what happened. Barnett took a veiled shot at the hypocrisy involved by saying he’s 35 years old and he would not go the route of begging for a testosterone slip like other fighters. NSAC had Barnett take a drug test on October 15th and he passed.

So, once again, the NSAC with their new “enhanced” drug testing (whatever the hell that means) is beating their chests about how great they are but if a fighter like Georges St. Pierre wants to get drug tested by the Voluntary Anti-Doping Association, then it’s “weird” and Goodman is Dracula who should be castigated. Kind of like how Vince McMahon orders his TV announcers to scream “bizarro world” whenever an audience doesn’t cheer or boo the wrestlers he wants them to go along with.

Topics: Media, MMA, UFC, Zach Arnold | 3 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |

3 Responses to “Good old boys network at Nevada meeting approve Josh Barnett for license”

  1. 45 Huddle says:

    Why is the “freakin government” allowing a 3 time offender to fight?

    He should be out of the sport.

  2. david m says:

    I am glad Josh is allowed to fight, he is one of the best HWs in the world. If he tests clean under enhanced testing procedures, who cares?

    • SmackyBear says:

      Well, we don’t exactly know what the enhanced testing consists of. It was an ad hoc program they developed just to make Bob Arum’s life easier for Bradley-JMM. Now they’re extending it, but won’t talk about it other than to say, “WADA” a lot.

      We know it’s supposed to be enhanced, but compared to the NSAC’s normal testing, pretty much anything is enhanced.

      Just for one drug, testosterone:

      They could have a urinary test to epitest ratio with a cutoff of 6:1 (the NSAC’s normal cutoff) to flag the urine sample for follow up with a carbon isotope ratio (CIR) test confirmation. Or they could use a 4:1 cutoff like WADA recommends. Or they could just do a CIR on all urine samples like VADA.

      And do they have a contract with a company to provide doping control officers and blood collection officers? Because for the NSAC’s normal “random” tests, nobody even shows up. They just call you and tell you you need to give a sample at one of a list of places by the next evening. Which is not exactly ideal in my opinion.

      Do they supplement the urine samples with blood samples? Because the NSAC usually doesn’t, and there are quite a few substances that are better detected (or only detectable) in blood, rather than urine.

      I do think many of Barnett’s detractors would think better of him if he were able to complete a robust anti-doping program. But, as things stand now, we don’t know if Barnett is in a robust program or not. And I’d like all fighters, especially multi-time offenders, to be in robust anti-doping programs.

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