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Cesar Gracie: I didn’t use marijuana

By Zach Arnold | April 4, 2007

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A busy day here at Fight Opinion headquarters.

I didn’t use marijuana: That is Gracie’s claim on Sherdog. This is in response to Ivan Trembow’s MMA Weekly story yesterday about 23 MMA fighters failing drug tests (most of them marijuana-related).

Something shady at CSAC or the lab they use. If I used marijuana I would admit to it or be quiet and let this die. As everyone around me knows I don’t, so it becomes a question of whether there is incompetence or corruption going on. When I was told I tested positive last year I asked for a retest and a hearing and offered to pay for a DNA test to prove that the urine was not mine and they had made a mistake (if the retest came back positive).

Armando Garcia told me not to worry about it and that it would be expunged from my record since I was not planning on fighting again. He specifically asked me never to bring this up again and that he doesn’t ever want to see this brought up on the internet by anyone. I never had a hearing or had to pay a fine as is mandatory for everyone failing a drug test. Now over a year later this comes up.

In affect this made me guilty without being afforded the due process that everyone else gets when they test positive for a banned substance.

Keep your eyes open on the MMA California web site for any further updates.

Topics: All Topics, Media, MMA, Zach Arnold | 8 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |

8 Responses to “Cesar Gracie: I didn’t use marijuana”

  1. Euthyphro says:

    Wow, if true that’s interesting to say the least. Garcia suspends fighters at will, but doesn’t even make Gracie pay a fine when he challenges the validity of a positive test?

  2. KennyP says:

    I think that this clinches it for the remaining skeptics: Armando Garcia has run the CSAC as his personal fiefdom, with little regard for proper administration of the sport and no consistency in his execution.

    The reason commission-regulated sports are supposed to work better is because the promoters and fighters often act in conflict with the “best interests” of the athletes and the sport. The key part of any commission’s mandate has to be to apply an even-handed style to all promoters and athletes. When the CSAC (1) doesn’t administer steroid tests; (2) vetoes matchups at the last moment; (3) holds out fighters for minor paperwork issues; and then (4) fails to comply with even the most rudimentary versions of the sunshine law, there can be no doubt that CSAC is a national embarrassment.

  3. GassedOut says:

    If this is true, there should be an investigation, and Cesar has some legal basis for a lawsuit.

  4. Mike says:

    Question for Ivan Trembow: Here’s a snippet from the MMAWeekly drug article:

    When asked why the UFC did not acknowledge Sanchez’ drug test failure on its web site, as it has for all other UFC drug test failures over the past year, the UFC did not respond.

    You need to clarify who at the UFC you attempted to contact, what way did you attempt to contact them, how often, and how much time you gave them to respond.

    Who is “the UFC?” Did you call Dana White? Did you call their PR department? Did you actually speak to someone and ask them a question, or did you simply leave a message? Did you call anybody? It doesn’t say you did. Maybe you just emailed UFC. If so, did you email anyone specific? And were they given a fair chance to respond, or did you simply email them five minutes before you were going to publish so you could say you attempted to call them? If you are going to publish something this explosive, you need to be clear you are giving the other side a fair chance to respond, and quite frankly in this case you didn’t.

  5. Ivan Trembow says:

    e-mailed the PR people that you’re supposed to e-mail with questions like these, did so on two separate occasions, they’ve had since March 22 to respond

  6. Kev says:

    So, what happened to Brian Ebersole? I know he fought in the IFL in LA, so of course he’s not suspended anymore, but did the CSAC just lift it quietly or did they acknowledge the validity of the cartwheel pass?

  7. Erin says:

    Ebersole carried out his suspension (I think it was six months) and was allowed to return to fighting.

  8. D.Capitated says:

    Oh, poor non-fight fans who’ve converted…

    http://www.dca.ca.gov/csac/about/faqs.htm

    You should consider reading that and then afterwards maybe you’ll have a small clue how a athletic commission is supposed to work. Their job is to make sure that fights are clean and legit not merely for the athletes competing but for those watching as well. Remember when those purses were held because the “guys were having fun”?

    § 346. PROCEDURE WHERE FAILURE TO COMPETE.
    In any case where the referee decides that the contestants are not honestly competing, that the knockdown is a “dive,” or the foul a prearranged termination of the bout, the referee shall not finish the knockdown count or disqualify for fouling or render a decision, but shall stop the bout not later than before the end of the last round and order purses of both boxers held pending investigation and disposition of the funds by the commission. The announcer shall inform the audience that no decision has been rendered.
    NOTE: Authority cited: Section 18611, Business and Professions Code. Reference: Sections 18640, 18730 and 18733, Business and Professions Code.
    HISTORY:
    1. Change without regulatory effect of NOTE (Register 87, No. 5).
    2. Amendment filed 10-30-95; operative 10-30-95 pursuant to Government Code section 11343.4(d) (Register 95, No. 44).

    See, in the real world of sports, when you’re in a fight, you actually *have* to fight. You can’t say you’re going to have a fight and then not really do it. Citing what athletic commissions did in the 1960s in regulating professional wrestling bouts is null and void in the year 2007. The only place they have now in that industry is to restrict (Kentucky, Pennsylvania, and of course Oregon). Most don’t bother with it at all.

  9. Truth Be Told says:

    The urine sample did not come from Cesar. He used urine from one of his students. This was done last minuet backstage after the fight. Because his fight was not a title fight he did not expect to get tested and therefore panicked. I guess it is better to get caught for marijuana than GH and steroids.

    And yes,, I know for a fact that Cesar was on GH and Steroids.

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