Quote of the Week: Keith Kizer on drug testing
By Zach Arnold | December 26, 2009
Dan Rafael’s new column on the negotiations between the Pacquiao and Mayweather camps provides this absolute gem from Keith Kizer, head of the Nevada State Athletic Commission:
Arum’s appeal for the commission to handle matters may be hollow because although it has protocols in place for random urine testing during training camps, it doesn’t for blood testing, and to put it in place in time for a March 13 fight is unlikely, according to Keith Kizer, the executive director of the Nevada commission.
“We’re very confident that urine tests by themselves cover everything that needs to be covered, but if the camps want to do additional testing through a third party they are welcome to, as long as they also adhere to commission rules,” Kizer told ESPN.com. “Urine testing we could run with today. We could test their urine every day from now until March 13. But blood testing is trickier because we don’t require it. If the commission wanted to change the rule it would have to be at a public meeting and, at the earliest, that would be early to mid-January. We have done some urine testing during training camps. We have those protocols in place. Blood testing is a different story.”
When I wrote the article about The Regulators and The Drug Cheats, I was asked why I contradicted myself when I said that having regulation of the sport is a good thing and yet I provided examples of the various athletic commissions doing, in my view, a sub-standard job. In a perfect world, the commissions would aspire to do the best job possible in regulating the sport. After all, MMA is a sport, right? Treat it like one. Just because Keith Kizer continues to find new ways to astound me doesn’t mean that it dampens my spirit for the business to be regulated in a fair manner.
We’ve seen what the business looks like when regulation is in effect and when it isn’t in effect. I prefer regulation. That doesn’t mean that I’m going to celebrate fecklessness or cronyism when it’s on display, either.
OK, since traffic is slow during the Holiday season, let’s bust out a fun analogy here — I’d like to see MMA regulated and the fighters protected the same way people protect themselves by using condoms during safe sex. Does that illustrate my point better? Now, if you can come up with different analogies for levels of sexual protection as far as blood testing versus urine testing, well, good for you.
Topics: Boxing, Media, Zach Arnold | 18 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
The Fight Opinion Five: The Regulators and The Drug Cheats
By Zach Arnold | December 26, 2009
Throughout the past decade, we have looked through our site archives and all of the various notes written during the time period to come up with five of the most interesting and important stories that Zach Arnold and the Fight Opinion team have covered. This is an arbitrary list of themes, but each theme carries historical importance and also emotional importance to not only the fans but also the authors, too. This is not an article series meant to cover everything that happened over the past decade, but rather to highlight what were some of the most fascinating stories to cover.
The Zuffa Myth. Those words won’t ring a bell to the casual MMA fan, but they became a bane to my existence in life this past decade. For the smarter, veteran MMA fans who understood how the Unified Rules came about in Mixed Martial Arts, watching UFC and favorable media cohorts push the storyline that it was Zuffa that cleaned up the sport of MMA and implemented a rule structure was one of the most irritating things imaginable. Why was it so irritating? Because Zuffa, through sheer market force, has done a wonderful job of getting many States and countries to sanction and regular Mixed Martial Arts. The company had no reason to push the myth that they were the ones who invented regulation the sport, but yet they did and it has been a great disservice to the people who were actually involved in the initial regulatory process.
We know about the origins of the rules in Quebec (a sports commission that would ironically surface years later in controversy in relation to a major UFC event at the Bell Centre) and how New Jersey under the leadership of Nick Lembo and Larry Hazzard was the first state to cement the Unified Rules into place. (California originally had meetings but NJ got it done before the Golden State did.) What you see today in terms of rules is largely in part due to the work of the New Jersey commission. The commission has been a leader and not a follower when it comes to Mixed Martial Arts. They recently brought replay to the forefront for referees to use in certain instances during fights. Nevada would soon adopt New Jersey’s replay rule.
Continue reading this article here…
Topics: All Topics, Boxing, Media, MMA, UFC, Zach Arnold | 15 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
DREAM vs. Sengoku promotional video
By Zach Arnold | December 26, 2009
This is the hype video for next week’s Dynamite event at Saitama Super Arena.
Topics: DREAM, Japan, Media, MMA, Sengoku, Zach Arnold | 6 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Report: John McCain asked by HBO to mediate Pacquiao/Mayweather drug-testing dispute
By Zach Arnold | December 25, 2009
The Canadian Press says that Manny Pacquiao is going to file a defamation lawsuit against Floyd Mayweather and Golden Boy over performance-enhancing drug usage allegations. This lawsuit is something Ricky Hatton’s father allegedly supports.
But the whopper of the day, on Christmas no-less, is the report that HBO asked John McCain to mediate between both the Pacquiao and Mayweather camps regarding the kind of drug testing procedures that both parties would find acceptable. The report says that Pacquiao later backed out of having McCain as a negotiator.
First observation — you want to talk about making a total mockery of the Nevada State Athletic Commission? Holy $&%! Even HBO is approaching someone else other than Keith Kizer on how to handle the drug testing situation.
Second observation — you want to talk about making UFC look great in public in terms of matchmaking and being able to put matches together? Yowzers. Dana White’s got to be sitting there laughing his ass off at this development.
Topics: Boxing, Media, Zach Arnold | 13 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
The Fight Opinion Five: The Pro-Wrestling Connection
By Zach Arnold | December 25, 2009
Throughout the past decade, we have looked through our site archives and all of the various notes written during the time period to come up with five of the most interesting and important stories that Zach Arnold and the Fight Opinion team have covered. This is an arbitrary list of themes, but each theme carries historical importance and also emotional importance to not only the fans but also the authors, too. This is not an article series meant to cover everything that happened over the past decade, but rather to highlight what were some of the most fascinating stories to cover.
The crazy old man wasn’t so crazy after all. Antonio Inoki sensed something that a lot of people in the professional wrestling world didn’t understand.
He understood that pro-wrestling fans could give up and move onto something else.
If you’re a lifer in the pro-wrestling business, that concept is impossible to understand. It doesn’t matter if you are a promoter, a hanger-on, a booker, or a wrestler, the idea of giving up on your passion is a hard thing to do. As Jim Cornette, famous pro-wrestling manager, recently said, pro-wrestling fans are some of the heartiest bunch of people in the world. It doesn’t matter how much awful product is thrown their way, they will always continue to hold out hope for that one day when the good times come back and the business is reinvigorated. What people inside wrestling didn’t count on was the fact that fans would find a substitute for their wrestling fix in Mixed Martial Arts.
Continue reading this article here…
Topics: All Topics, Media, MMA, Pro-Wrestling, UFC, WWE, Zach Arnold | 35 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Dynamite 12/31 Saitama Super Arena
By Zach Arnold | December 24, 2009
DREAM vs. Sengoku
- Kazuo Misaki vs. Melvin Manhoef
- Norifumi “Kid” Yamamoto vs. Masanori Kanehara
- Hayato “Mach” Sakurai vs. Akihiro Gono
- Katsuyori Shibata vs. Hiroshi Izumi
- Hiroyuki Takaya vs. Michihiro Omigawa
- Hideo Tokoro vs. Marlon Sandro
- Alistair Overeem vs. Kazuyuki Fujita
- Shin’ya Aoki vs. Mizuto Hirota
- Tatsuya Kawajiri vs. Kazunori Yokota
K-1 matches
- Ray Sefo vs. Yosuke Nishijima
- Final match: Masato vs. Andy Souwer
MMA matches
- Hidehiko Yoshida vs. Satoshi Ishii
- Super Hulk Tournament finals: Minowaman vs. Sokoudjou
Topics: DREAM, Japan, K-1, Media, MMA, Zach Arnold | 30 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
What are the most interesting and important MMA stories from this decade?
By Zach Arnold | December 23, 2009
I am working on a list of the Top 5 most fascinating and important MMA stories that I wrote extensively about this decade. I will reveal the list in a few days and do so in detail and why they were so interesting to cover.
Going through all the MMA history of this past decade, what would you rank as your Top 5 most interesting and important MMA stories to you for this past decade? Think about it for a few minutes before hitting the reply button…
Topics: Media, MMA, Zach Arnold | 22 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Ontario indicating an embrace of MMA regulation in the future
By Zach Arnold | December 23, 2009
Ken Hayashi aggravated the MMA community for years and years. Where is he now?
CTV Toronto: Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty leaves door open to Ultimate Fighting
The excitement from those comments is being felt by everyone in the Ontario MMA community:
“There’s a tremendous amount of interest [in the Ontario market], and we would come up there at [the Premier’s] beck and call, whatever timing, and be more than happy to talk about the sport of mixed martial arts.” said Marc Ratner, who left his post as head of the Nevada State Athletic Commission three years ago to join UFC, of which he is vice-president of regulatory and government affairs.
The Toronto Star reports that UFC is hiring some big lobbyists:
The Star revealed last month that UFC, one of the world’s fastest growing sports properties, hired Liberal lawyer Noble Chummar as a registered lobbyist.
Also advising the privately owned UFC is former Ontario premier David Peterson, a political mentor to McGuinty.
Flashback: Transcript of Marc Ratner interview on HDNet
Topics: Canada, Media, MMA, UFC, Zach Arnold | 5 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Mayweather camp wants Pacquiao to do a blood test for doping
By Zach Arnold | December 22, 2009
What a fascinating tactic by Floyd Mayweather’s camp here — ask for the kind of strict drug testing that you normally don’t see for big fights. If Pacquiao accepts, then whatever paranoia Mayweather’s camp has about drug usage is gone. If Pacquiao refuses, then Mayweather doesn’t have to fight and can use the drug test refusal on moral grounds to back him up and make Pacquiao look like a cheater.
Head games…
Side note — wonder how Keith Kizer’s feeling right about now? His “business as usual” record so far as head of the NSAC has been scrutinized and now Mayweather’s camp wants drug testing outside of the “business as usual” NSAC-level (urine) drug testing. We know the various issues about the NSAC and drug testing in the past couple of years already, especially in regards to consistency and the out-of-competition policy…
Topics: Boxing, Media, Zach Arnold | 38 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Debating the Top 10 MMA fighters of this decade
By Zach Arnold | December 22, 2009
Jonathan Snowden compiled his list and you can click the link to read not only his list but why he picked the fighters he did. His list includes:
- Chuck Liddell
- Brock Lesnar
- Matt Hughes
- Bob Sapp
- Fedor
- Tito Ortiz
- Georges St. Pierre
- Anderson Silva
- BJ Penn
- Kimbo Slice
I’m sure his list will stir up a hornet’s nest in terms of who got excluded and who got included. Take a look at what the basis for this Top 10 list is:
It took some breakthrough stars to get us there, of course, and this list runs down the ten fighters most responsible for the sport’s success.
It’s a lot easier to come up with names to include than it is to exclude, but let’s give it a go here with some fighters who weren’t select who could make a case for inclusion on this list:
Kazushi Sakuraba. By far the most star power of those outside on this list. There has been so much MMA activity this past decade that it’s hard for some people to remember that his run against the Gracies peaked in 2000 at the Tokyo Dome in the 90-minute match with Royce. He was the Japanese ace of PRIDE for a long time (even when Yoshida came into the mix years later) and his defection to HERO’s during the negative campaign by Shukan Gendai against PRIDE essentially bruised the image of PRIDE as they were struggling to stay afloat.
Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira. Nogueira will be forever tied to two of the names on Mr. Snowden’s list, Fedor and Sapp. Nogueira’s win against Sapp at Kokuritsu Stadium in August of 2002 really propeled Sapp’s start in K-1 (if you remember, the next month Sapp got booked against Cyril Abidi with Kazuyoshi Ishii as a referee) and the juggernaut went on from there. Nogueira also fought Fedor multiple times and those bouts were tied into the famous New Year’s Eve TV wars in Japan. He’s done so much this decade that it’s hard to imagine but he’s underrated as far as what he has accomplished in MMA.
Randy Couture. Until his financial spat with UFC (where his image took a real hit) a year-or-so ago, Couture’s fairytale comeback was incredible in terms of heat and reaction. Much like Sapp and Nogueira, Liddell will be forever tied with Couture in terms of their fight history. Couture’s popularity is/was such that his fight style in the ring didn’t get him booed despite the fact that if other fighters did the same thing, they would be booed out of the arena. Business-wise, Couture peaked a while back but his career became red hot after dethroning Tim Sylvia. Nobody will ever forget that fight in Columbus, Ohio. I, of course, remember it vividly because of the close-ups in between rounds of Tim Sylvia constantly burping and gasping for air.
Wanderlei Silva. He went from IVC to knocking Kazushi Sakuraba around in scary fashion in the PRIDE ring. Silva presented the scariest aura out of any fighter on the PRIDE roster. His brutal wins over Sakuraba and Rampage Jackson became so famous and so ingrained in the mindset of the MMA fan base that Silva continues to live off of his past reputation to this day — and people don’t discount him one bit at all. His crowd-pleasing fight with Chuck Liddell in UFC cemented his forever-likeable status with the fans. Look at some of the big names he beat this decade: Dan Henderson, Kiyoshi Tamura, and Hidehiko Yoshida (man who got the biggest payday in the history of PRIDE). He’s had an absurd amount of fights involving big-name opponents (lost some big ones, too).
Mirko Cro Cop. His jump from K-1 to PRIDE during the 2003 New Year’s Eve war became the biggest political hot-potato move in Japanese MMA. After breaking Bob Sapp’s eye socket in Saitama in a K-1 fight, Mirko was going to face Yoshihiro Takayama at the Inoki Bom-Ba-Ye event at Kobe Wing Stadium in Hyogo. If that fight would have happened, PRIDE certainly wouldn’t have had as much momentum as they did. Without Mirko, the Inoki show turned into a complete disaster. Mirko’s run in the PRIDE ring culminated into a gigantic big-money fight against Fedor. (Who can forget some of the video packages done by Fuji TV leading up to that fight? First-class production.) As PRIDE was on its final legs in September of 2006, Mirko won the one-night tournament beating Wanderlei Silva and Josh Barnett in an amazing performance. His jump to UFC at the time was big news. Then came the ultimate shock when he lost to Gabriel Gonzaga, which set up Gonzaga taking a beating from Randy Couture in ’07. Mirko had been such a big figure in Japan for both K-1 and PRIDE, then flopped in UFC when it was expected that his high-level striking would set him up for big fights. Despite the UFC tenure not being a success, Mirko made enough splashes this decade to warrant his inclusion on the Top 10 list.
Topics: Media, MMA, Zach Arnold | 32 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Strikeforce 12/19 HP Pavilion (San Jose Arena)
By Zach Arnold | December 19, 2009
TV: Showtime
Dark matches
- Lightweights (155 pounds): Alex Crispim vs. AJ Fonseca
- Lightweights (155 pounds): Bobby Stack vs. Alex Trevino
- Lightweights (155 pounds): Juan Nunez vs. Luis Mendoza
- Lightweights (155 pounds): Daisuke Nakamura vs. Bryan Travers
- Light Heavyweights (205 pounds): Antwain Britt vs. Scott Lighty
Main card
- Light Heavyweights (205 pounds): King Mo vs. Mike Whitehead
- Middleweights (185 pounds): Robbie Lawler vs.
Trevor Prangley - Middleweights (185 pounds): Scott Smith vs. Cung Le
- Middleweights (185 pounds): Matt Lindland vs. Jacare Souza
- Strikeforce Lightweight title match (155 pounds): Gilbert Melendez vs. Josh Thomson
Topics: Media, MMA, StrikeForce, Zach Arnold | 76 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
WEC 12/19 Las Vegas, Nevada
By Zach Arnold | December 19, 2009
The Pearl at The Palms
TV: Versus
Dark matches
- Featherweights (145 pounds): Jameel Massouh vs. Erik Koch
- Bantamweights (135 pounds): Brad Pickett vs. Kyle Dietz
- Bantamweights (135 pounds): John Hosman vs. Chad George
- Lightweights (155 pounds): Muhsin Corbbrey vs. Zack Micklewright
- Lightweights (155 pounds): Bart Palaszewski vs. Anthony Pettis
Main card
- Bantamweights (135 pounds): Takeya Mizugaki vs. Scott Jorgensen
- Bantamweights (135 pounds): Joe Benavidez vs. Rani Yahya
- Lightweights (155 pounds): Anthony Njokuani vs. Chris Horodecki
- Lightweights (155 pounds): Donald Cerrone vs. Ed Ratcliff
This article says that Versus will air two UFC events next year. What?
Topics: Media, MMA, WEC, Zach Arnold | 8 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Independent World MMA Rankings – December 18, 2009
By Zach Arnold | December 18, 2009
From the office of the Independent World MMA Rankings
December 18, 2009: The December 2009 Independent World MMA Rankings have been released. These rankings are independent of any single MMA media outlet or sanctioning body, and are published on multiple web sites.
In addition to the numerous MMA web sites that publish the Independent World MMA Rankings, you can also access the rankings at any time by going to www.IndependentWorldMMARankings.com.
Some of the best and most knowledgeable MMA writers from across the MMA media landscape have come together to form one independent voting panel. These voting panel members are, in alphabetical order:
Zach Arnold (Fight Opinion);
Nicholas Bailey (MMA Ratings);
Jared Barnes (Freelance);
Jordan Breen (Sherdog);
Jim Genia (Full Contact Fighter, MMA Memories, and MMA Journalist Blog);
Jesse Holland (MMA Mania);
Robert Joyner (Freelance);
Todd Martin (CBS Sportsline);
Jim Murphy (The Savage Science);
Zac Robinson (Sports by the Numbers MMA);
Leland Roling (Bloody Elbow);
Michael David Smith (AOL Fanhouse);
Jonathan Snowden (Heavy.com);
Joshua Stein (MMA Opinion);
Ivan Trembow (Freelance);
and Dave Walsh (Total MMA and Head Kick Legend).
Note: Will Ribeiro is no longer eligible to be ranked, due to the fact that he has not had an MMA fight in over 12 months.
December 2009 Independent World MMA Rankings
Ballots collected on December 15, 2009
Heavyweight Rankings (206 to 265 lbs.)
1. Fedor Emelianenko (31-1, 1 No Contest)
2. Brock Lesnar (4-1)
3. Frank Mir (13-4)
4. Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira (32-5-1, 1 No Contest)
5. Shane Carwin (11-0)
6. Brett Rogers (10-1)
7. Alistair Overeem (31-11, 1 No Contest)
8. Junior dos Santos (9-1)
9. Cain Velasquez (7-0)
10. Fabricio Werdum (13-4-1)
Light Heavyweight Rankings (186 to 205 lbs.)
1. Lyoto Machida (16-0)
2. Mauricio “Shogun” Rua (18-4)
3. Rashad Evans (13-1-1)
4. Quinton Jackson (30-7)
5. Anderson Silva (25-4)
6. Gegard Mousasi (27-2-1)
7. Forrest Griffin (17-6)
8. Antonio Rogerio Nogueira (18-3)
9. Dan Henderson (25-7)
10. Thiago Silva (14-1)
Middleweight Rankings (171 to 185 lbs.)
1. Anderson Silva (25-4)
2. Nathan Marquardt (29-8-2)
3. Dan Henderson (25-7)
4. Vitor Belfort (19-8)
5. Demian Maia (11-1)
6. Jake Shields (24-4-1)
7. Chael Sonnen (24-10-1)
8. Yushin Okami (23-5)
9. Robbie Lawler (16-5, 1 No Contest)
10. Jorge Santiago (21-8)
Welterweight Rankings (156 to 170 lbs.)
1. Georges St. Pierre (19-2)
2. Jon Fitch (20-3, 1 No Contest)
3. Thiago Alves (16-6)
4. Josh Koscheck (14-4)
5. Dan Hardy (23-6)
6. Matt Hughes (43-7)
7. Paulo Thiago (12-1)
8. Mike Swick (14-3)
9. Carlos Condit (24-5)
10. Marius Zaromskis (13-3)
Lightweight Rankings (146 to 155 lbs.)
1. B.J. Penn (15-5-1)
2. Shinya Aoki (22-4, 1 No Contest)
3. Eddie Alvarez (19-2)
4. Kenny Florian (12-4)
5. Tatsuya Kawajiri (25-5-2)
6. Gray Maynard (8-0, 1 No Contest)
7. Frankie Edgar (11-1)
8. Diego Sanchez (21-3)
9. Joachim Hansen (19-8-1)
10. Mizuto Hirota (12-3-1)
Featherweight Rankings (136 to 145 lbs.)
1. Jose Aldo (16-1)
2. Mike Brown (22-5)
3. Urijah Faber (22-3)
4. Hatsu Hioki (20-4-2)
5. Bibiano Fernandes (7-2)
6. Raphael Assuncao (14-1)
7. “Lion” Takeshi Inoue (17-3)
8. Wagnney Fabiano (12-2)
9. Manny Gamburyan (10-4)
10. Michihiro Omigawa (8-8-1)
Bantamweight Rankings (126 to 135 lbs.)
1. Brian Bowles (8-0)
2. Miguel Torres (37-2)
3. Takeya Mizugaki (12-3-2)
4. Masakatsu Ueda (10-0-2)
5. Dominick Cruz (14-1)
6. Akitoshi Tamura (14-7-2)
7. Joseph Benavidez (10-1)
8. Damacio Page (12-4)
9. Rani Yahya (15-4)
10. Manny Tapia (10-3-1)
The Independent World MMA Rankings are tabulated on a monthly basis in each of the top seven weight classes of MMA, from heavyweight to bantamweight, with fighters receiving ten points for a first-place vote, nine points for a second-place vote, and so on.
The rankings are based purely on the votes of the members of the voting panel, with nobody’s vote counting more than anybody else’s vote, and no computerized voting.
The voters are instructed to vote primarily based on fighters’ actual accomplishments in the cage/ring (the quality of opposition that they’ve actually beaten), not based on a broad, subjective perception of which fighters would theoretically win fantasy match-ups.
Inactivity: Fighters who have not fought in the past 12 months are not eligible to be ranked, and will regain their eligibility the next time they fight.
Disciplinary Suspensions: Fighters who are currently serving disciplinary suspensions, or who have been denied a license for drug test or disciplinary reasons, are not eligible to be ranked.
Changing Weight Classes: When a fighter announces that he is leaving one weight class in order to fight in another weight class, the fighter is not eligible to be ranked in the new weight class until he has his first fight in the new weight class.
Catch Weight Fights: When fights are contested at weights that are in between the limits of the various weight classes, they are considered to be in the higher weight class. The weight limits for each weight class are listed at the top of the rankings for each weight class.
Special thanks to Eric Kamander, Zach Arnold, and Joshua Stein for their invaluable help with this project, and special thanks to Garrett Bailey for designing our logo.
Topics: Media, MMA, Zach Arnold | 38 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |