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The obligatory transcript of Jim Rome sounding off on Chael Sonnen and steroids in UFC

By Zach Arnold | September 22, 2010

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(Audio clip from Steve Cofield and company at Yahoo Sport’s MMA sub-site.)

“What about Chael Sonnen? Chael Sonnen, of course, made a lot of noise, made a lot of waves, caught some attention to himself. The guy went from being an anonymous MMA’er to a guy that everybody was talking about and part of that was for all the junk that he was talking and part of that was for saying that Lance Armstrong gave himself cancer and part of that was for him coming on this show and denying that it was him who said it. Part of that was for the way he showed up and was beating Anderson Silva down for four-and-a-half rounds before losing. So, there was all that going on and he was a major topic on this show for several weeks. Then comes word that he reportedly was popped for roids. Sherdog.com reported that he flunked a post-fight urinalysis after that loss to Silva in the main event of UFC 117. So we have to wait and see what’s true and what’s not. If in fact that’s true, this guy’s got major problems. That’s a bad deal for him. Bad for him, bad for the sport, but mostly bad for him. If he did test positive, then he’s probably looking at a lengthy suspension. A suspension that could run 9 months to a year and that’s at the worst possible time. Never good to be suspended for a year, but this guy couldn’t be any more prominent, couldn’t be any hotter, couldn’t be any more prevalent, this is his time to strike, to get paid, to continue to make a name for himself, to get a belt. And he could get shut down for 9 months to a year. That would mean no rematch with Silva and the guy’s going to be fined and lose money that he would have made during his suspension. Not to mention, he’s going to lose that rematch with Silva if it’s true.

“And Dana White said, look, how much is too much? I mean, do you expect me to come down on top of what’s going to happen and hammer the guy again? That remains to be seen. The problem is, and this has come up, I’ll take ire with what who’s always into me about this is boxing writer Chris Mannix. Mannix tweets and hits me with, yeah, what about the drug problem? What about the drug problem? Every sport has one and I’m not going to say that MMA and the UFC doesn’t have issues. Now I will say this — they don’t have their head in the sand. Dana White has spent some money and they’re doing their best to eradicate it but it’s nearly impossible, it’s nearly impossible to do. Testing is very expensive. Educating the fighters is very expensive and especially if they don’t care and they’re not listening and they don’t want to hear it. Unless they police themselves, it’s probably not going to happen because you really can’t police these guys. Say for instance Chael Sonnen did it. I don’t know if he did, I don’t know if he didn’t. I don’t know if he tested positive or not, that’s the report. Say he did do it. Does that look or sound like a guy that you’re going to reason with? Does that look or sound like a guy that you’re going to pull aside and say, hey Chael, I’m just using him as an example. You can take any number of guys who are using. Does that look and sound like somebody that could pull aside and say, hey listen, you don’t want to do that. You don’t know what those things are doing to your body. You don’t know what you could do to somebody else who’s not on those things. You could seriously injure them. Do you really think those guys want to hear that? You can bring in experts from all over the world at an unbelievable cost, do you think that’s what they want to hear or that’s what they’re going to listen to? I’m guessing they already had a conversation with them self and I’m guessing the conversation went something like, ‘All right, I can use this stuff and get bigger and stronger and faster and more dominant and win and get paid and I’m not going to get caught. And maybe there is a chance to get caught, but the reward is so much greater than the risk. Bring it on.’

“You know, a number of you have e-mailed me and saying, look at him Rome. I’ve always been careful not to visually indict guys. I’ve always been careful not to look at the picture of the guy and say, UFC 92, then the picture of the guy in UFC 106, then the picture of the guy in UFC 118. I get those e-mails a lot. ‘LOOK ROME, WAKE UP. Look how ripped he is. Look at his backne! What do you think is going on?’ My thing is, I don’t visually indict guys but I’ll look at that and I think you can consider that but to me at the end of the day, MMA, UFC, they’re facing the same issue that every single sport faces. Guys are looking for an edge. Guys are looking to get over and as long as they think that the reward outweighs the risk, they’re going to do it! And I think in almost every single case guys will convince themselves that the reward outweighs the risk. I don’t know if Sonnen did it or not but he was a rather anonymous figure not long ago. I think part of this is the way he ran his mouth. The guy talked himself into being a household name. The guy talked himself into popularity. But it wouldn’t have meant anything if he didn’t back it up and the guy was fighting lights out. He was not highly-regarded and then all of a sudden he started to fight lights out. Fought a great fight, got a title shot. Made the most of the title shot, had that fight won before getting into trouble late and losing. So I’m not sure.

“And by the way, the guy’s still talking. Still talking. You heard him last week. You heard those sound bites that I played where he was going on and on about ‘I’m Brock Lesnar!’

(sound clip plays of ‘I’m Brock Lesnar! I got this $5 haircut and a knife tattoo on my chest! Well I’ll shove up through your face if you get in Chael Sonnen’s way.’)

“I’m Brock Lesnar!

(sound clip plays of ‘I’m Brock Lesnar! I got this $5 hair cut and a knife tattoo on my chest! Well I’ll shove up through your face if you get in Chael Sonnen’s way.’)

“I’ve got a $5 hair cut and a knife tattoo but I’ll shove it up into your face if you get in Chael Sonnen’s way? Did you hear what he just said?

(sound clip plays of ‘I’m Brock Lesnar! I got this $5 haircut and a knife tattoo on my chest! Well I’ll shove up through your face if you get in Chael Sonnen’s way.’)

“This guy’s nuts! And may have tested positive for roids. So, if that’s the case, he’s on the clock and his 15 minutes are moving fast. But we have to wait and see if in fact that’s the case. But if he did, he’s not the only guy doing it. And there’s no easy solution for the reasons I mentioned. The reward to use is always going to outweigh the risk to these guys. I’m not saying you stop trying. if I’m Dana White or I’m any sport, I’m not saying you stop trying. You’ve got to educate these guys. You’ve got to let them know. You’ve got to penalize these guys. There’s got to be a deterrent. But they’re going to do it. The stakes are way too high. The rewards are way too great. Guys will always cheat. Guys are not going to stop cheating.”

Topics: Media, MMA, UFC, Zach Arnold | 4 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |

4 Responses to “The obligatory transcript of Jim Rome sounding off on Chael Sonnen and steroids in UFC”

  1. edub says:

    I wish Jim Everett beat Jim Rome into a wheelchair.

  2. kb says:

    Everett would have punched himself out, and has a chin softer than 3 ply t.p. Rome via second rd. tko.

  3. DANGEROUS DAN says:

    Rome is a douche bag and a hypocrite. He would not cover MMA for yeas always calling it by the cockfighting tag & now he will. He has no spine and no tact. I am surprised no one has taken him out yet.

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