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« | Home | »

Monday mundane: Syringes for everyone

By Zach Arnold | July 23, 2007

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Gregg Doyel at CBS Sportsline has a new article on MMA’s drug culture titled Steroid scandal could destroy what UFC has built. He tends to write in more of an emotional style than say, me. Also, Mike Coughlin has an article on Ridding Mixed Martial Arts of Steroids. Dann Stupp in the Dayton Daily News has an article titled Athletic panels shouldn’t be the only ones giving penalties.

Lori Gilbert in The Stockton Record today:

If I paid to see the July 7 UFC bout at Arco Arena and learned two fighters were disqualified when they failed their drug tests, I’d demand my money back.

Bob Matthews in today’s Rochester Democrat & Chronicle:

Ultimate Fighting stars Sean Sherk and Hermes Franca recently were suspended after failing drug tests.

Six of the top 10 thoroughbred trainers in America have been suspended in the past year for positive tests for illegal drugs on their horses.

Pro sports in America have never been bigger than they are now. But it has never been tougher to be a pro sports fan.

Is there any hope?

UFC Junkie has a report claiming that Matt Wiman will fight Michihiro Omigawa at UFC 76 in Anaheim, California. If the name Omigawa doesn’t ring a bell, he’s a low-to-midcarder from Hidehiko Yoshida’s J-ROCK judo camp. He lost to Aaron Riley at a Bushido show. I’d rather watch Aaron Riley than Omigawa in the UFC.

It is absolutely absurd to see what Japanese talent is being currently booked in UFC. There’s a reason why guys like Takanori Gomi are not flocking to fight in UFC and that reason is because many in Japan view UFC as a dead-ender for their long-term careers. Plus, being a star in UFC means next-to-nothing at this point as far as marketing and sponsorships in Japan.

Think about what Japanese talent UFC has booked in the last couple of years. Yushin Okami, Dokonjonosuke Mishima, K-Taro Nakamura, and coming soon Hayato “Mach” Sakurai. To put it bluntly, these are guys that would be opening match fighters for a bigger Japanese promotion at this point in terms of marketability. None of these guys would be placed higher than maybe third or fourth on a card. It would next-to-impossible for UFC to successfully market a card in Japan using these fighters, even in a smaller 5,000-seat venue.

Maybe 20 people in Japan will care about Omigawa being booked. Booking guys like Omigawa is a sure sign that UFC would have no idea what guys to promote if they ran a Japanese show. That’s unfortunate, because the Japanese marketplace is wide open for them at the moment. They should be able to run spot shows here-and-there if they wanted to. However, that door is starting to close a little bit as K-1 fills up the power vacuum for MMA in the country.

Joe Riggs was a big winner in Canada over the weekend.

Pancrase announced Assuerio Silva vs. Arbocious Tiger for their KOP Heavyweight crown on October 14th in Tokyo at Differ Ariake.

Dana White is interviewed in an upcoming edition of GONKAKU magazine. He is asked about when PRIDE will return. White indicated that it will be difficult to see any sort of return for PRIDE in 2007, but 2008 might be a different story.

Onto today’s headlines.

  1. The Houston Chronicle (Steve Sievert): Failed drug tests deal low blow to White, UFC
  2. MMA California: Muay Thai MMA Oakland smoker recap
  3. Bloody Elbow: TWo match-ups to get excited about
  4. The Fightworks Podcast: Interviews with Jason Lambert and Kid Peligro
  5. MMA on Tap: M-1 Russia vs. Europe results
  6. MMA Weekly: The Ultimate Fighter moving to Wednesdays next season
  7. Fightlinker: Terry Martin vs. Chris Leben = Awesome Fight Night
  8. SLAM! Sports: UFC no exception to banned substances controversies
  9. The Chicago Sun-Times: The ultimate career call – Jason Chambers follows his passion, picks acting job over real thing
  10. CBS2 (Los Angeles): UFC legend BJ Penn stops by CBS2/KCAL9 studios
  11. CBS Sportsline: Q & A with Tito Ortiz
  12. The Fresno Bee: Shawn Klarcyk comes back in style
  13. MMA Insider: Binky Jones on last week’s loss
  14. The Boston Herald: Gonzaga’s jiu-jitsu key to heavyweight title
  15. The Indiana Daily Student: Fight Night – Bloomington hosts Elite Cage Fighting event

Topics: BoDog, Canada, Japan, Media, MMA, Pancrase, PRIDE, UFC, Zach Arnold | 42 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |

42 Responses to “Monday mundane: Syringes for everyone”

  1. Doyel’s style is suitable for a columnist, but the preponderance of that kind of I’m-your-best-bud, you-can-trust-me journalism is highly annoying.

    As far as Omigawa is concerned…what in the fuck. Anyone know the skinny on these guys:

    Denis Kang
    Takanori Gomi
    Mitsushiro Ishida
    Gilbert Melendez
    Tatsuya Kawajiri
    Joachim Hansen
    Shinya Aoki
    Alistair Overeem
    Kazuo Misaki
    Sergei Kharitonov
    Antonio Rogerio Nogueira
    Rameau Thierry Soukoudjou
    Mark Hunt
    Josh Barnett
    Ricardo Arona
    Kazuhiro Nakamura
    Aleksander Emelianenko

    They should all be signed, somewhere. Now.

  2. JThue says:

    Overeem signed for K-1, and all the others are basically free agents if they want to be, I guess(Barnett, Soko, Melendez and Kang already confirmed). It’s a hell of a list of fighters, that’s for sure.

    I do feel sorry for Hansen who signed a new long term deal and then either had one or none fights before the sinkage. And he was already tired of sitting on his ass LAST year :S

  3. white ninja says:

    maybe omigawa’s just really cheap!? 3K + 3K?

  4. jeff says:

    Much like Baseball and every other sport today the only people who care about doping are the writers and a few select fans who love the gossip angle of it.

    Even the fan who bangs loudly on message boards that they really care about doping will cease this stance once their favorite fighter/player is implicated.

  5. D.Capitated says:

    Soukoudjou is supposedly set for K-1 Hero’s, and Alexander Emelianenko is fighting in Holland against Gilbert Yvel.

  6. The Aleks E fight was a one off, so he’s still a free agent. As for omigawa, I never understood why the UFC kept grabbing such over the hill talent from Japan. I think it has a lot to do with Joe Silva’s lack of visibility into the fight scene there, and the UFC brass’s lack of willingness to pay the proper amount for fighters from Japan.

  7. Yeah, Mishima at age 34? Not a great idea. Like you hinted at, it has something to do with money, I’m sure.

  8. Jordan Breen says:

    Next to impossible to get 5000? Let’s not go crazy, Zach. Shooto’s big cards in Yokohama can get just under 5000.

    Also, I think you’re missing a big point with the UFC getting Japanese talent, and that’s plain and simple the style of how they’re signing the guys. Omigawa is getting into the UFC because his manager approached Zuffa and got him a deal. Meanwhile, guys like Kawajiri and Ishida say they want very, very badly to fight in the UFC and are “waiting for a call”.

    When the UFC started its more earnest internationalization process, Joe Silva revealed in an interview with Manabu Takashima that he wanted Japanese managers to contact him, and pitch fighters to him. THAT is the bigger problem here, is that apart from random guys who Joe Silva likes (Mishima, Aoki), he isn’t pursuing talent, but rather waiting for managers to contact him. It’s laissez-faire foolishness, which is why you have guys like Boku and Kikuchi competing in a tournament for a chance to hopefully-maybe-fingers-crossed get a UFC deal, but Naoyuki Kotani is going into the second fight on his UFC deal.

    This problem is compounded by the fact that many Japanese fighters either a) don’t have the connections to a powerful international manager or b) whatever representation they do have is stifled by the strong-arming of guys like Booker K, who represents many Japanese guys in the UFC, and often enforces the idea that he is the only route through which to gain entry to the UFC.

    One thing you hit on which is particularly valuable in the point about sponsorships. However that’s something which can change if the UFC can sign better Japanese talent, and even get back on Japanese television or pay-per-view to some extent. However, what is more important is that amidst them voraciously pursuing stateside regulation, European expansion and so forth, they don’t simply adopt an attitude of “Japan will come to us”.

    As for Omigawa, he is actually much, much improved since the Riley fight. He’s not great right now, but his only loss since he got thrashed by Calvancanti is Kazunori Yokota, the current DEEP champ who pretty darn good. Omigawa’s striking is a lot better now, and his ground game is pretty decent. Whether or not he wins aside, he is definitely better than Brian Geraghty.

    As for random weight stuff on guys yet to be signed, Gomi says he’s already made appropriate preprations to fight at 70 kilograms again, and guys like Chonan and eyeing a move down to 77 kilos. Also, Akihiro Gono is walking at 82 kilograms right now and if he fights stateside, may try to move down to 77 kilos.

  9. Zurich says:

    Perhaps it has something to do with impilcitly building the American fighter up over the Japanese one. That is, when casual fans are solicited by a Japanese MMA org (e.g. K-1, PRIDE), the casual fan would say, “who cares? The Japanese guy always gets his ass kicked in UFC”. That’s my guess, any way.

    Zack, I agree with your rant to a certain extent.. but c’mon, Mach is an opener mach guy with no marketability (in Japan)?? Mach vs. Gomi was one of the main events at Shockwave ’05..

  10. Jeremy says:

    “Much like Baseball and every other sport today the only people who care about doping are the writers and a few select fans who love the gossip angle of it.

    Even the fan who bangs loudly on message boards that they really care about doping will cease this stance once their favorite fighter/player is implicated.”

    – Must say I tend to agree with Jeff’s point here on an overall aspect of steroids and drugs in sports. Does everyone wish they weren’t involved in sports? Yes, I am sure they do. But do most realize it has pretty much entrenched itself in sports? Again, I think they do. So what’s a fan supposed to really do? Besides just accept the fact that some amount of athletes are probably doing illegal drugs to gain an advantage.

    I mean look at some of the sports that have been involved in steroids………..Baseball, Cycling, and the Olympics. Barry Bonds was in Milwaukee this weekend on the verge of breaking the biggest record baseball has and the place was packed to the rafters. Every where the guy plays people come out to see him, even if it’s because they hate him. But yet they are still taking pictures each time he bats. I mean ESPN is covering it like crazy still. Now I don’t follow cycling or the olympics all that much, but neither have been destroyed from what I have seen by their scandals. Every time I see a race on Versus(especially the tour) there are thousands upon thousands of fans watching them(perhas millions for the Tour of France). And inevitably after the race some big name in cycling tests positive for something. Yet they still come out to watch time and time again it seems.

    I think drug issues in sports end up affecting the individual more then they do the sport overall. If you are a fan of a sport or a team you don’t stop watching because a athlete or group of athletes test positive for a banned substance. Perhaps you hate that athlete or like him less then you once did, but you still end up watching the sport because you’re a fan and there is nothing else to do. I tend to feel the journalists write the articles about “the destruction of” this sport and that sport more to get the sensationalism out there to attract readers to their story. Granted there is some aspect of the sport that is negatively affected by the drug usage issue but I haven’t seen one sport destroyed yet.

  11. Zack says:

    “Soukoudjou is supposedly set for K-1 Hero’s, and Alexander Emelianenko is fighting in Holland against Gilbert Yvel.”

    Yvel pulled out of the fight due to injury…it was actually 2 or 3 nights ago. Aleks won by armbar in the first.

  12. Tomer Chen says:

    Now I don’t follow cycling or the olympics all that much, but neither have been destroyed from what I have seen by their scandals.

    I thought a lot of big sponsors were pulling from the TV networks and some networks have cancelled showing it because of the German cyclist who recently got caught doping?

  13. Ivan Trembow says:

    I’m assuming that there will be personally insulting responses from the UFC to the CBS Sportsline column and to this NBC Sports column: http://www.nbcsports.com/alanabrahamson/blog/2007/07/ufc_alert.html

  14. […] That’s not exciting at all. Who the fuck is Michihiro Omigawa? I dunno. Do you know? Well, at least Zach Arnold knows. Because he knows everything. If the name Omigawa doesn’t ring a bell, he’s a low-to-midcarder […]

  15. David M says:

    The UFC’s main two targets off of that list should be Barnett and Kang, both of whom have the skills, exciting styles, the look, and the English to get over huge with the American audience. Mark Hunt would also be a good pick-up for Dana, but I assume he is more likely to sign with K-1 due to his famous name in Japan from his kickboxing years..

  16. [blockquote]Things Jordan said[/blockquote]

    I think part of this has to be attributed to the fact that Zuffa relies on too few people for very important roles within the company. Joe Silva is basically in charge of all fighter recruitment and matchmaking across the UFC and WEC. He’s looking at fighters across the entire world, which is a lot to ask for one person. Particularly when that one person is doing it for the largest company in the industry.

    One would think Zuffa would start recruiting matchmakin’ underlings for Joe, or at least have some international talent scouts empowered to make contact with fighters of interest and shuffle them over to Joe. As it is now, guys like Booker K can make the case that they ARE those guys — the ones with Joe Silva’s ear. Zuffa needs to make sure that they have people (without management connections to fighters) who can get promising fighters in touch with the company.

  17. klown says:

    http://www.thefightnetwork.com/ has a poll on which was the most shocking recent roid bust in MMA. A large majority has picked Royce Gracie – definitely still the most painful revelation for me, personally.

  18. Preach says:

    “I thought a lot of big sponsors were pulling from the TV networks and some networks have cancelled showing it because of the German cyclist who recently got caught doping?”

    To say that the sport is in turmoil would be quite the understatement. After it was revealed last monday that Sinkewicz tested positive in June, both ARD and ZDF, the networks that covered the tour in Germany pulled out (The rights were immediately bought by Sat.1, though at a much lower price, but still, the damage was done), even going so far as to not even mention the tour anymore in the sports-blocks of their daily news. Big sponsors such as T-Mobile will be pulling out of the sport altogether at the end of the year (and they’ve been the main sponsor of one of the best teams of the last 10 years), and other sponsors such as car manufacturers Audi and Skoda, Milram (Yoghurt) or Gerolsteiner (germany’s leading brand of tablewater) are expected to follow. Financially it’s really a make or break for the sport right now, all it takes is just another cyclist testing positive and the whole thing blows up…

    And let’s not mention that the sport is about to lose it’s last bit of credibility, with Michael Rassmussen expected to win the tour. He “missed” three scheduled blood-tests without giving an explanation (or better yet, with giving false wherabouts), which usually means that you get immediately banned for doping – which he obviously didn’t. Talk about giving the Tour, the sport a black eye…

    Riis, Pantani, Landis… all won the tour, all doped up. Ullrich – won the tour, ta “customer” of infamous doping-guru Dr. Fuentes, so most probably doped too… And let’s not speak about Lance Armstrong, he’ll most probably end up as being exposed as a doper too in the future…

  19. Preach, you’re like a walking talking wikipedia on everything. Marry me and have my babies.

  20. 45 Huddle says:

    When Zuffa purchased Pride, they planned on running events in Japan. Without TV, that is a money losing proposition. They want to continue to bring in fighters from Pride, but the company’s belief is that it should be done a few fighters at a time. If they completely flooded their cards with Pride fighters, and brand new fighters to the casual fans, the fans wouldn’t know what to think. By filtering them in slowly, at least there will be some build up for each of the new fighters. This is according to Dave Meltzer.

    These are the one’s I know:

    Denis Kang – Free Agent

    Takanori Gomi – ???.

    Mitsushiro Ishida – ???.

    Gilbert Melendez – ???.

    Tatsuya Kawajiri – ???.

    Joachim Hansen – ???.

    Shinya Aoki – ???

    Alistair Overeem – Signed with K-1. Will be fighting as a Heavyweight.

    Kazuo Misaki – ???.

    Sergei Kharitonov – ???. There was a rumor he would either be fighting for K-1 or Elite XC, but nothing has been confirmed. And that was back in May.

    Antonio Rogerio Nogueira – Concentrating on Boxing right now.

    Rameau Thierry Soukoudjou – Signed with K-1

    Mark Hunt – ???

    Josh Barnett – Free Agent

    Ricardo Arona – ???. With the recent flux of fighters in the UFC from the Brazilian Top Team, I’m sure he will be over eventually.

    Kazuhiro Nakamura – Considered for fighting Chuck Liddell, but the UFC decided that Jardine’s name was bigger. Rua was also considered, but they figured that is too big of a fight that nobody would care about and not worth it right now (Source: Meltzer)

    Aleksander Emelianenko – Signed with bodog (Source: Meltzer)

  21. 45 Huddle says:

    And as for who the UFC “has to have”….

    Gilbert Melendez, Takanori Gomi, Shinya Aoki, Sokoudjou, & Josh Barnett.

    The rest range from nice to have like Noguiera & Arona… To who cares…. Nakamura.

    And obviously the UFC already lost Sokoudjou to K-1, but can you blame them? Paying him over $200,000 per fight is crazy. Especially after he showed in his WEC fight that once the guy fights back, he crumbles.

  22. 45 Huddle says:

    Sorry, I forgot about Kang on the “have to have” list.

  23. Preach says:

    Thank you, Fightlinker, but i guess the soon to be Mrs would have something against that 😉

  24. Jordan Breen says:

    “Takanori Gomi – ???.

    Mitsushiro Ishida – ???.

    Gilbert Melendez – ???.

    Tatsuya Kawajiri – ???.

    Joachim Hansen – ???.

    Shinya Aoki – ???”

    Every single one of them are just waiting for offers. Chris Sanford said that he is starting to field some serious offers for Melendez. Kawajiri and Ishida have said they want to fight in the UFC and are just a phone call away. Hansen is currently doing some amateur boxing in Scandiland, also waiting for an offer.

  25. 45 Huddle says:

    It’s almost like they should just put on a smaller Pride show in America… just to get some of these guys fights. even if it loses some money…. And slowly they can bring these guys into the UFC from there.

  26. 45 Huddle says:

    Plus, there has to be more to the story then: “Fighters waiting for call from Zuffa, despite knowing that Zuffa is waiting for a call from them.”

    If i am a fighter, I am calling them up and asking when I can fight. If they, or their managers, can’t do this, then they need new representation.

  27. Tomer Chen says:

    Preach,

    Thanks. I remember reading that story somewhere (from you in another thread?) and thought it was relevant to counter the ‘everything is OK with Cycling’ claim made by Jeremy (although he did say that he didn’t follow it closely).

    Jordan,

    Check your e-mail, please. Much appreciated. Also, HAHA at Pongsaklek Wonjongkam by he beat twice before (Daisuke Naito). Guess fighting the same 5 guys 100 times to pad his record and title defense list finally caught up to him… 🙂

  28. Jeremy says:

    “I thought a lot of big sponsors were pulling from the TV networks and some networks have cancelled showing it because of the German cyclist who recently got caught doping?”

    – Like I said, yeah I don’t follow the sports of cycling and olympics all that much, especially television coverage and sponsorship wise. I am referring more to fans following the sport as far as the affect from the drug scandals. So far from the little cycling I have seen this year it doesn’t seem to have a big affect. I’ve watched several stages of this years Tour De France and it looks like the fans are still coming out in force.

  29. Randy Rowles says:

    Sometimes I think we lose track of what it is we’re talking about here. MMA is a sport where people punch each other in the face.

    (Now if only they added striking to cycling…)

    The Franca-Sherk roid story, which was ripe to be sensationalized — both guys in a title fight! — got zero play as far as I could tell from ESPN and the mainstream media. It just seems so irrelevant. So many want to protect fighters from the dangers of drugs or themselves or whatever. These are grown men whose job it is to fight each other in a cage. Some fighters are going to break the rules and do the drugs. Regular people do drugs just for fun, with no financial or career incentive. People do steroids just to look good driving their car around town on Friday night! Drugs are everywhere, why wouldn’t they also be in sports? All you can do is police the issue if you want.

    It’s like steroids hold some sacred power that will miraculously help you win a fight. A lot of the guys on ‘roids lose their fights!?! Maybe it helps you heal faster or build more muscle with workouts, but in the end, isn’t it mostly skill that actually wins fights?

    Take 20 supplements a day, but if you cross this line, then it’s all over. Just like in real life, only the dumber people/fighters are going to get caught anyway. Smart fighters figure out how to win (both with and without drugs) within the rule structure. Athletes who make millions a year have figured out HGH — and pass drug tests. If an athlete is on drugs, but we don’t know about it, does it still count? Should we then break down the diets and supplements of each fighter and compare them to see who is getting what advantage? Maybe have a standardized fighter diet and workout? These seem to be as important as any banned drug.

    In society there are laws that prohibit certain behavoirs. Break the laws, suffer the consequences. People are always getting arrested for drugs. If a fighter breaks the rules, they are punished by the laws set by state athletic commissions. Fighters breaking laws and/or rules doesn’t mean people are going to stop wanting to see people fight. Maybe certain sponsors or TV will go away with a bigtime ‘roid bust, but the sport has and always will go on.

    I think if people can get over Barry Bonds doing steroids to hit a ball with a stick, and are aware that cyclists, golfers and pro wrestlers do steroids, then whether or not fighters do or don’t do steroids, people will always believe that someone who punches others in the face for a living at least might do steroids and/or drugs. I know I’d have to be on drugs to get into the octagon…and then I’d be subsequently suspended.

  30. Zach Arnold says:

    The Franca-Sherk roid story, which was ripe to be sensationalized — both guys in a title fight! — got zero play as far as I could tell from ESPN and the mainstream media.

    The Associated Press had a report on Thursday when the news came and had a report when Sean Sherk announced that he would file an appeal. In other words, the two stories made a lot of newspapers across America.

    Plus, there were plenty of other columns (Houston Chronicle, Yahoo Sports, CBS Sportsline, NBC Sports, etc.) that have covered the steroids situation.

  31. Randy Rowles says:

    Well, that’s certainly more than the “zero” I credited. It was written, but I wonder if anyone really cares? I’d say the rest of my rant still applies.

    Isn’t the problem fixed with the whole 1 year suspension? That’s a long time not to be able to work.

    I’m not saying steroids or drugs are good. I just don’t get the overdramatic reactions to failed drug tests. I wonder how many people fail drug tests trying to get a job at Wal-Mart every day?

    Bob Matthews asks “Is there any hope?” — I mean, seriously? Because Sean Sherk put something banned into his body? Or Hermes Franca used a steroid to accelerate the healing of an injury?

    How about transfering this “hope” onto all of the other fighters — the ones who passed their drug tests? We all know cheaters never win.

  32. Zach Arnold says:

    Isn’t the problem fixed with the whole 1 year suspension? That’s a long time not to be able to work.

    Unless, of course, you can work in Japan for K-1 like Royce Gracie. Or if your name is Kimo and you work in England after getting suspended for stanozolol in California. You can work anywhere outside the States if you want to after failing a drug test.

    I’m not saying steroids or drugs are good. I just don’t get the overdramatic reactions to failed drug tests. I wonder how many people fail drug tests trying to get a job at Wal-Mart every day?

    Let me know when there is a rash of Walmart employees on vet drugs like boldenone, clenbuterol, or trenbolone.

    Bob Matthews asks “Is there any hope?” — I mean, seriously? Because Sean Sherk put something banned into his body? Or Hermes Franca used a steroid to accelerate the healing of an injury?

    The atmosphere in general sports right now sucks. You have the Michael Vick dogfighting scandal (NFL), you have a mafia gambling scandal (NBA), you have the Barry Bonds situation (MLB), and you have a drug culture in MMA. Plus, the Chris Benoit murder-suicide (WWE) and the on-going Pacman Jones saga (NFL), both linked because Dr. Phil Astin and Jones are using Manny Arora as an attorney. Not a great year for the Atlanta sports world.

    Of course, I’m laughing hard at everyone who is in an uproar about the Tim Donaghy NBA scandal yet wouldn’t blink an eye or care about the PRIDE yakuza scandal that I spent two-plus years covering and writing about.

  33. Randy Rowles says:

    “Unless, of course, you can work in Japan for K-1 like Royce Gracie. Or if your name is Kimo and you work in England after getting suspended for stanozolol in California. You can work anywhere outside the States if you want to after failing a drug test.”

    Is there a punishment for this, i.e. can you fight in the U.S. again? I’m only assuming this, so I could be wrong, but I’d expect there’d be some further suspension to a fighter and/or promotion who did this.

    “Let me know when there is a rash of Walmart employees on vet drugs like boldenone, clenbuterol, or trenbolone.”

    Because they are vet drugs, does that make them worse than crack…or meth…or huffing gas…or overdosing on cough syrup…or the number of regular people who snort cat and horse tranquilizers?

    “The atmosphere in general sports right now sucks…”

    I feel just the opposite. I am loving the UFC right now with all the great upcoming fights…and Michael Vick always was an idiot.

    “…you have a drug culture in MMA.”

    There’s a drug culture in life. I mean as long as 8 year olds are slinging crack, I don’t know that grown fighter men need us to fight the good fight for them about the drugs.

    There is punishment in place. Sean Sherk isn’t going to Japan to fight for K-1 while he’s suspended. He’d never be allowed back in the UFC. He’ll be serving a real punishment. As far as Kimo, I mean that guy would be fighting whether he got paid or not. Kimbo Slice made a pretty penny fighting in his backyard. Maybe a lesser known fighter could fight while suspended, because he’s got nothing to lose and is only making a couple hundred bucks to fight anyway, but the UFC would not tolerate that.

  34. Randy Rowles says:

    Nothing wrong with a spirited debate.

    I agree with you on this one…

    “Of course, I’m laughing hard at everyone who is in an uproar about the Tim Donaghy NBA scandal yet wouldn’t blink an eye or care about the PRIDE yakuza scandal that I spent two-plus years covering and writing about.”

    You’ve definitely been the leading voice on this highly underrated story, which is now starting to play out stateside.

  35. Jeremy says:

    “Fighters breaking laws and/or rules doesn’t mean people are going to stop wanting to see people fight. Maybe certain sponsors or TV will go away with a bigtime ‘roid bust, but the sport has and always will go on. ”

    – This is my feeling as well Randy and what I was trying to get across in earlier posts on this topic of “destroying what the UFC has built.” And also where I was trying to go with the other sports that have been involved in the steroid controversy. The fans are still there from what I have seen so far. And whether this tv station leaves or this sponsor leaves as long as the fans are still there some other sponsor or tv station will step in to fill the void, at least so far in history. Perhaps cycling might become the big test if another tour winner is under suspicion but only time will tell.

  36. Jordan Breen says:

    “If i am a fighter, I am calling them up and asking when I can fight. If they, or their managers, can’t do this, then they need new representation.”

    I think it goes both ways. Zuffa SHOULD be pursuing these guys, but at this point, guys have to realize that Zuffa are waiting for the talent to come to them. Whether it’s proper or not, guys need to adapt, and get their managers to do their thing.

  37. klown says:

    Zach, how do you respond to Eddie Goldman’s critique of your article?

  38. Zach Arnold says:

    Zach, how do you respond to Eddie Goldman’s critique of your article?

    For the most part, I thought it was pretty fair criticism. I’m not travelling the world to do 100% original reporting, but Denny and I did talk to many sources and make the effort to get people to talk.

    As far as ‘burying the lede’ on what Miro Mijatovic claimed, I think the placement of his quotes in the article is fine. It fit in best with the flow of the article. I really don’t have many complaints at all.

    I thought Eddie’s radio show this week was good.

  39. D. Capitated says:

    The Associated Press had a report on Thursday when the news came and had a report when Sean Sherk announced that he would file an appeal. In other words, the two stories made a lot of newspapers across America.

    Lots of AP reports come out during the course of a day. That doesn’t make it so that they’re printed in America’s newspapers. ESPN and Fox Sports never reported it on TV, much less national news or local station affiliates, which means it may just as well have never happened.

  40. Jeremy says:

    In a good bit of MMA news coverage, CNN Headline News ran a piece this morning about MMA called Sprawl ‘n’ Brawl – MMA Goes Mainstream. I have no idea if this is an old or new report though. But it was basically about the past history of MMA and how it has risen back from the dead to become a mainstream sport.

  41. Tomer Chen says:

    Can someone summarize the Goldman show, because it’s not working for me?

  42. klown says:

    Goldman put the latest MMA drug busts in the context of the long list of contemporary sport scandals in football, basketball, cycling, pro-wrestling (he calls WWE “the Chris Benoit League”) etc, and calls it a dark time for US sports. He says Zach’s article is good although it isn’t an in-depth investigative piece like some of the tell-all books that have come out exposing drug use in other sports. He criticized it for burying the juiciest bits in the last page or 2 of the article and wondered whether this was the fault of the author or editor.

    Goldman goes thru the difficulties of regulation and proposes that the US to join the UNESCO’s World Anti-Doping Agency. Read about it here:
    http://www.wada-ama.org/en/

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