Florida allows young man with Down’s Syndrome & Rheumatoid Arthritis to do MMA fights
By Zach Arnold | March 24, 2013
If you click the picture, you can view a video feature that ESPN produced and aired on their Sunday night edition of Sportscenter. The piece is about Garrett “G-Money” Holeve, a 23-year old young man with Down’s Syndrome and Rheumatoid Arthritis, who is currently involved in amateur MMA fights in the state of Florida. The amateur MMA fights involving Garrett are being regulated by the International Sport Karate/Kickboxing Association (ISKA), one of the many approved sanctioning bodies that Florida’s beleaguered athletic commission allows to regulate bouts. Garrett currently trains at American Top Team in Weston, Florida and has many friends in Mixed Martial Arts, including Stephan Bonnar.
Garrett and his family have started a non-profit (Garrett’s Fight) to raise money for special needs athletes, especially those who want to be active in combat sports. Their goal is to get MMA as an approved sport in the Special Olympics.
The Broward-Palm Beach New Times did a profile article on Garrett last December. It’s well worth your time to read. One paragraph from the article stuck out to me:
“For someone with Down syndrome, Garrett is extremely high functioning. Still, his cognitive ability is roughly equivalent to that of a 12-year-old’s. His reading and math skills are at a third-grade level. He can’t tell if a cashÂier gives him correct change after he buys a slice of pizza, his mom says, and it’s unlikely he’ll be able to understand this entire article.”
BBC News just published an article in the last 24 hours talking about Down’s Syndrome being linked to brain protein loss. MedPage Today just published preliminary results from a new brain study regarding the effects of repeated blows to the head.
When you watch the ESPN feature on Garrett and his parents, it’s really well-produced and very honest. Stuart Scott did the intro and outro on Sportscenter. Tom Rinaldi, known in ESPN inner circles as the guy you get to narrate a video to make people cry(ask Mike Greenberg), did the voiceover on the feature. You couldn’t find two bigger names at ESPN who will treat MMA with respect than Stuart Scott & Tom Rinaldi.
When I watched the feature on Sportscenter, I was absolutely conflicted. My heart said that this was a great story. My mind said this story would cause major controversy and that there was trouble on the way. I could sense immediately that the way the story was presented, it would be the feel-good-story-of-the-year reaction on social media. However, I also knew that the internal reaction from those in the business — especially well-regarded regulators — would be sheer horror.
After the Sunday night feature, I made several phone calls to doctors, athletic inspectors, judges, and individuals with medical knowledge who are involved in regulating combat sports. The reaction from the people I contacted was unanimous and swift — they were absolutely terrified. Not one person supported the idea of allowing someone with Down’s Syndrome inside the ring for amateur or pro MMA. One respected athletic inspector said that allowing Garrett Holeve to fight in an MMA bout was exploitative, no matter if the audience cheered and gave Holeve a standing ovation after the fight. The concept of allowing someone with Down’s Syndrome (limited cognitive ability & brain issues) to take punches and get slammed drew a swiftly negative reaction amongst the people I interviewed.
What also drew my attention (and the attention of others) was that the epicenter of this feature was Florida. The fact that Florida’s commission (via the ISKA) allowed this to happen and that any doctor gave clearance for Garrett Holeve to fight. As Garrett’s father, Mitch, noted in the ESPN feature, he’s received negative feedback from people close to him who feel he is putting his son in tremendous danger.
The general public’s reaction to the piece is what I thought it would (touching). The reaction from those inside the business has been largely sour. Should Florida tell the ISKA to stop further sanctioning Garrett Holeve from fighting in the future? If Holeve applies for a professional license to do MMA in Florida, should Cynthia Hefren & Frank Gentile give him a license?
Exit questions: a) Would ESPN have showed the ending to Garrett Holeve’s fight if he got knocked out? b) if Holeve had gotten injured during the fight they aired, would they have spiked the feature because it wasn’t a heartwarming ending?
Topics: Florida, Media, MMA, Zach Arnold | 25 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
State auditor admits California’s athletic commission nearly got death penalty… then suggests Che Guevara could take over
By Zach Arnold | March 21, 2013
To read all CSAC-related articles, dating back to May 2012, CLICK HERE.
Since we’ve covered the mess going on with lifer-since-Jimmy-Carter Denise Brown and her Department of Consumer Affairs in relation to how they’ve operated the California State Athletic Commission, one point has been very clear — the commission was in trouble. Real trouble.
Trouble as in getting sunsetted by California’s state senate, which means the California Democratic Party. As in Darrell Steinberg pulling the plug. Today’s headline in the Sacramento Bee says it all:
Auditor says California athletic commission needs to change or go
Let me translate that for you: “If we didn’t hire Andy Foster, we would have shut the commission down.”
Let me also interpret for you what sunsetting would have meant. It would have meant that DCA would be operating California combat sports the way the DBPR operates Florida’s commission. In other words, a train wreck. Nothing would have been fixed. The only difference is that the numbers would have swept under the rug. And you know who would have regulated California combat sports? Che Guevara. Yeah, that guy. He’s still getting paid $60,000 a year to be a paper pusher but he doesn’t have the authority he once had. He’s just cashing a paycheck.
If the Bureau of State Audits was really serious about cleaning house in Sacramento, they would tell the state Legislature to fire Che Guevara’s sorry ass. But they won’t. So, instead, they once again play for the quick media headlines.
From the Sacramento Bee:
The solvency plan commissioners have since adopted assumes a 35-percent cut in costs from the $1.83 million budgeted in 2011-12. It may not be realistic.
“We are concerned that many of the changes the plan outlines may prove impractical and too drastic to sustain over time,” the audit says.
The commission’s operations are so upside-down that it probably lost money regulating some events. It’s hard to know for sure, because inspectors sometimes miscalculated the state’s take or missed some calculations entirely, leaving the commission vulnerable to “human error or fraud,” according to the audit.
Who was in charge of the athletic inspectors who couldn’t calculate a box office? Che Guevara. Remember this article I wrote? Crystal ball — CSAC audit will reveal up to 7-figures $ missing.
You didn’t need a state auditor to state the obvious if you were reading Fight Opinion. The sad part? People in California combat sports had to read this site to get their information on what was really going on as opposed to trusting Sacramento to tell them what was up. That’s pathetic.
The state auditor, in her report (which you can get the link to later in this article), claims that 50% of the inspectors booked for fight events weren’t local and were out-of-region bookings. Guess who was responsible for that? Che Guevara.
Here’s my message to Darrell Steinberg, Lou Correa, and the state Senate’s Business & Professions Committee. Che Guevara should absolutely be terminated — for cause. This is as slam dunk of a case as you can get. If the California Legislature wants to make a statement to the public that they want to clean house at the athletic commission, you fire Che and you do it now. Simple as that. Fire his ass. And do it publicly, too. Not on a Friday document dump. You fire him with the Sacramento press corps paying attention to what you’re doing.
Do you really want to sacrifice political capital protecting that guy? Cut your losses.
Unfortunately, that won’t happen. They also won’t fire Doreathea Johnson, the legal nitwit at DCA that has had her fingers in the proverbial cookie jar when it comes to the mess at DCA. Hell no, they won’t do that. She just got an internal job promotion by Governor Jerry Brown! What a nasty piece of work she is.
Also, I got a problem with Bureau of State Auditor boss Elaine Howle. A real big one.
Continue reading this article here…
Topics: Boxing, CSAC, Media, MMA, Zach Arnold | 3 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
The curious media take on HBO cutting ties with Golden Boy
By Zach Arnold | March 18, 2013
Golden Boy will now only fight on Showtime and not HBO
By now, you know the story: HBO has elected to sever its relationship with Golden Boy. After watching Golden Boy and shadowy adviser Al Haymon strip the network of several of its top guys (Amir Khan, Saul “Canelo” Alvarez, Danny Garcia and Andre Berto among others) and move them across the street to rival Showtime, HBO decided it had enough.
You want ’em, HBO said to Showtime. You got ’em.
They are putting almost all of their chips in with Bob Arum now and hoping that Main Events, Lou DiBella and Gary Shaw can deliver solid matchups as well.
HBO ends Golden Boy relationship, passes on Adrien Broner (Boxing Scene):
The announcement marked the crumbling of a once-powerful alliance between HBO Sports and Golden Boy Promotions, a relationship that was weakened when Showtime hired former Golden Boy attorney Stephen Espinoza to run its sports division in November 2011. Showtime now televises Golden Boy Promotions cards almost exclusively, but Broner and Bernard Hopkins were the only high-profile Golden Boy fighters whose fights were still broadcast by HBO.
The split was coming for a while (Boxing Scene):
The tension between HBO and Golden Boy began in late 2011, when former Golden Boy attorney Steven Espinoza replaced Ken Hershman as the Vice President and General Manager of Showtime Sports. Soon after Espinoza’s hire, Golden Boy started doing a voluminous amount of business with Showtime. Hershman is now the current President of HBO Sports.
The turning point in the Golden Boy/HBO relationship took place in September 2012. Golden Boy was looking to do a major card on September 15th with WBC junior middleweight champion Saul “Canelo” Alvarez. HBO refused to give Golden Boy the date. The network would instead reserve the previously mentioned September date for a pay-per-view event, which was headlined by Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. vs. Sergio Martinez and promoted by Golden Boy’s main rival, Top Rank.
So, with all of this turmoil, there’s one question that hasn’t really been asked yet about the future of HBO and boxing:
What is in Ken Hershman’s professional background that indicates that he isn’t going to run HBO the same way he ran business at Showtime?
The conventional wisdom is that because HBO is HBO and not Showtime that therefore this will somehow change the way Ken Hershman runs his boxing platform. I don’t see that happening at all. What you got with Ken Hershman at Showtime is what you’re going to see with Ken Hershman at HBO. Those who have dreams that he’s going to change the way he does business are likely going to be disappointed.
It’s like a new promoter bringing in a matchmaker from a different promoter. The matchmaker isn’t going to change their stripes. They’re going to book fights the way they’ve always booked fights.
So, Hershman made his call and will be going with Top Rank, Dan Goossen, Gary Shaw, Lou Dibella, and Main Events. He’s basically taking The Field while Showtime is going with Golden Boy, who has tried to signed everyone under the planet to a contract. What exactly is so surprising about this development and why would anything think that Mr. Hershman is going to behave differently than he has in the past?
The only thing different this time around is that you may not have Don King to kick around any longer.
Topics: Boxing, Media, Zach Arnold | 16 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Nick Diaz gets a top ESPN headline… for not apparently paying his taxes
By Zach Arnold | March 17, 2013
Nick Diaz, after loss, says he doesn’t pay taxes, jail probable
Words can’t describe this short interview, so maybe some quotes will.
“I could have had a better training camp.”
“Nobody had faith in me to win this fight. I think I could have stopped the takedowns, I think I could have got the takedowns, come to think of it.”
He talked a lot about “the Canada thing” screwing up his sleep patterns and how he slept until 8 PM.
“I was just moving real slow.”
“I’d like a re-match, you know?”
Nick then went on to … blame?… Jeff Sherwood (Sherdog) for taking some photos of him catching ‘fools’ in knee-bars. Diaz says he thought he could show-off that submission roll in his GSP fight, but no luck because apparently the world saw all those Sherdog photos including GSP and fight strategy changed.
“I’m trying to retire, I’m trying to get out of this gig.”
“I’m not hurt. He hits like a woman, you know? He has a full-on range to separate and punch me but he hits like a girl because he’s too scared to let go far enough to get a real punch in because I’ll get up and he’ll have to fight and move around.”
“He fought all those wrestlers and he was going to wrestle them down. Once he takes them down, they don’t know what to do. They just sit there, they don’t get up.”
“You could say I don’t want to retire if I get a re-match, but if I don’t get a re-match who am I going to fight? I’m not going to fight any of these guys out here. I’ve done everything I’ve set out to do in fighting. I don’t want to jump around with these new kids. I don’t think Georges wants to fight Anderson Silva, I really don’t think he does.”
“Johny Hendricks is probably going to get worked (by GSP).”
“To be honest, this isn’t that upsetting to me.”
UFC 158 St-Pierre vs. Diaz inside the box score and by the numbers
Topics: Canada, Media, MMA, UFC, Zach Arnold | 37 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Fallon Fox: Transgenders shouldn’t have to disclose medical history to fight in women’s MMA
By Zach Arnold | March 17, 2013
Jonathan Solomon: Fallon Fox debate divides women’s MMA community
“I don’t believe that a transgender fighter should have to disclose her personal medical history to other female fighters before they fight. Simply for the reason that the medical community and the scientific community has come to the consensus that post-operative transsexual fighters who have been on hormone replacement therapy and testosterone suppression, when they’re going from male to female, don’t have or haven’t been found to have any physiological advantages over other women. So, why should we have to disclose our personal medical history? There’s a lot of pain involved in having to disclose your post-transgender history, a lot of things that you might not want to disclose… so, I say no, I don’t think that we should have to disclose our information.”
Related: The real questions not being asked in Fallon Fox/Florida debacle
“I do believe that it may deter some fighters from fighting me in the future. Some fighters have already said that they would not want to fight me. I think that’s because they’re scared, number one because I’m pretty good and, um, or they might just have a bias or they just might be a hate-filled person who doesn’t want to touch me or whatever but, um, I don’t want to fight those people anyways because they’re scared and what kind of fight would that be? I want to fight someone who’s going to come after me aggressively and who wants to fight me and I want a good fight. That’s what I’m looking for in the future.”
Fight Medicine: A medical and scientific analysis of transgender MMA fighters — do they have an advantage?
“You know, I am using still, you know, I’m prescribed it but at the same time I’m going to take more precautions. I’m going to quit five weeks out. I guess three weeks wasn’t enough and I’m pretty confident that should be enough to keep it out of my system.”
“I think it effects everybody a little differently and it doesn’t really slow me down, it just makes things normal, you know? I’m really hyper, I’m high-paced and, you know, just slows thing down and it also helps me with a bunch of other ailments, so… You know, to me, it’s a miracle plant, you know. To the Government, I guess it’s against the law in some states or whatever but where I’m from in Nevada, here, it’s legal. I’m a legal patient.”
JOE ROGAN: “I think it might actually enhance you. There’s a lot of guys who like to do marijuana and do jiu-jitsu because they say it enhances their feel and you could also argue that marijuana helps you absorb pain, it helps you deal with pain. It’s a pain reliever. So, you wouldn’t want anybody to be fight on something that allows them to take more pain.”
MATT RIDDLE: “It doesn’t (help numb the pain) and I also want to say that I don’t want to fight high, you know, I’m not trying to smoke before I get into the cage, take a bong ringside, you know I’m not trying to do that. I’m trying to be able to use my medicine maybe two weeks prior to a fight…”
Topics: Media, MMA, Zach Arnold | 26 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Joe Rogan on Fallon Fox: “You can’t fight chicks, get the fuck out of here”
By Zach Arnold | March 15, 2013
“She calls herself a woman but… I tend to disagree. And, uh, she, um… she used to be a man but now she has had, she’s a transgender which is (the) official term that means you’ve gone through it, right? And she wants to be able to fight women in MMA. I say no fucking way. I say if you had a dick at one point in time, you also have all the bone structure that comes with having a dick. You have bigger hands, you have bigger shoulder joints. You’re a fucking man. That’s a man, OK? You can’t have… that’s… I don’t care if you don’t have a dick any more…”
“You can’t fight women. That’s fucking crazy. I don’t know why she thinks that she’s going to be able to do that. If you want to be a woman in the bedroom and you know you want to play house and all of that other shit and you feel like you have, your body is really a woman’s body trapped inside a man’s frame and so you got a operation, that’s all good in the hood. But you can’t fight chicks. Get the fuck out of here. You’re out of your mind. You need to fight men, you know? Period. You need to fight men your size because you’re a man. You’re a man without a dick.”
“I’m looking at a man with a dress, OK? And you don’t… you can act as a woman, I will call you a ‘her,’ I will, uh, call you ma’am. I’ll be respectful but you can’t fight women when you have a man’s frame. PERIOD. Women aren’t that wide, that generates to increased punching power. Women don’t have that sort of muscle structure. I don’t know what you’re doing, I don’t know, you mean obviously if you’re transoperational it means you removed your testicles so your body’s not producing testosterone any more. I don’t know if you’re supplementing testosterone. If your body’s not producing testosterone, why are your arms so big? What’s going on here? There’s a lot of shit going on there and you can’t fight women. No fucking way.”
“She’s won two fights by brutal knockout. So, she’s fighting women. … There’s a variety of small companies that, um, that are willing to allow a person like this to fight. I say it’s fucked up. You can’t fight women! You can’t. And just to look at her record, she’s crushed two women inside the first round. I mean, she’s crushing these girls…”
“Look, she’s huge! She’s not just huge, she’s got a fucking man’s face. I mean, you can wear all the lipstick you want. You want to be a woman and you want to take female hormones, you want to get a boob job, that’s all fine. I support your life to live, your right to live as a woman.”
“Fight guys, yes. She has to fight guys. First of all, she’s not really a she. She’s a transgender, post-op person. The operation doesn’t shave down your bone density. It doesn’t change. You look at a man’s hands and you look at a women’s hands and they’re built different. They’re just thicker, they’re stronger, your wrists are thicker, your elbows are thicker, your joints are thicker. Just the mechanical function of punching, a man can do it much harder than a woman can, period.”
“I support, 100%, anyone’s right to be transgender. This is not where it lies with me, like I’m not a prejudiced person. I don’t know what you feel in your body. If you really are a woman trapped in a man’s body, I support your right to do whatever you want to do. Go for it. If that’s what makes you happy, I would not try to stop that at all and I support it 100%. The real issue comes with violent competition with women and the reality of the physical structure of your body. The reality of the physical structure is not fair. You can’t say that a 145 pound woman and a 145 pound man are even. That’s like saying, you know, a 30-pound poodle and a 30-pound Pitbull are just two dogs — because they’re not. One of them has distributed its mass in quite a different way. It’s built for quite a different purpose and men are built for smashing shit. Women are built for getting held down by the stronger male monkey and, you know, women are built for carrying babies and doing work and whatever other non-hyperexplosive physical things you would want to do with your body. But they’re not built for hyperexplosive physical violence, they’re just not. They have more dainty frames, their hands are smaller. And even if they are big, they’re not big like a big man is. It’s not fair. I’m not trying to discriminate against women in any way, shape, or form and I’m a big supporter of women’s fighting. I loved watching that Ronda Rousey/Liz Carmouche fight. But those are actual women. Those are actual women. And as strong as Ronda Rousey looks, she’s still looks to me like a pretty girl. She’s a beautiful girl who happens to be strong. She’s a girl! [Fallon Fox] is not a girl, OK? This is a transgernder woman. It’s a totally different specification.”
“How about some crazy dude who wants to beat the fuck out of chicks, so he gets his dick chopped off? I mean, that’s not outside the realm of possibility. There’s a lot of suicidal fucks out there. There’s a lot of people that are like on the edge anyway. Like getting your dick chopped off, you know you’re going to pay attention to me? OK, I’ll chop my dick off, I’ll be a girl for a while. There’s people out there that are fucking crazy and you can’t let them fight girls. You just can’t. So, if this chick fights on Indian land I guess they could do whatever you want. I don’t see the Nevada State Athletic Commission allowing a woman to fight a man, though. … I don’t agree with the (Florida) athletic commission letting this happen. I don’t know. I don’t understand it. I don’t know why anybody would ever allow it. When it comes to competitive athletics, that’s where you got to draw the line.”
Topics: Florida, Media, MMA, Zach Arnold | 56 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Your 2012 California State Athletic Commission tax records review
By Zach Arnold | March 14, 2013
To read all CSAC-related articles, dating back to May 2012, CLICK HERE.
Last year, we stirred the pot when we posted the 2011 tax records for those working at the California State Athletic Commission.
Let’s do it again, this time for the year 2012.
1. Ernest Che Guevara – $59,194
2. Sid Segovia – $29,435 (he’s now gone due to “resignation”)
3. Anthony Olivas – $20,203 (his day job with the state, also under the umbrella of Consumer Affairs, generates a salary of $36,198)
4. Mark Relyea – $19,402 (expect a significant increase in 2013 w/ Andy Foster backing him big)
5. Larry Ervin – $19,398 (his day job at the Employment Development Dept. has a salary of $50,647)
6. Mohammad Noor – $17,804 (he took a huge pay hit in 2012 and now is gone after DCA sent a letter of money confiscation)
7. Brian Morris – $14,753
8. Sarah Waklee – $13,144 (now on the sidelines due to a lawsuit against DCA & CSAC)
9. Rick Estrada – $12,421
10. Raul Oseguera – $12,236
11. Joe Ulrey – $12,202
12. Michael Guzman – $12,186
13. Valerie Douglas – $10,513 (now on the sidelines)
14. Nichole Bowles – $10,074
15. Dave Rasmussen – $9,601
16. Roy Farhi – $8,159
17. Burton Alejandre – $7,493
18. Frank Gonzales Jr. – $6,724
19. Jim Russell – $6,567
20. Bruce Rasmussen – $5,946
21. Brett Correia – $5,768
22. Gil Urbano – $4,521
23. Danny Cruz – $4,431
24. Tim Huff – $4,263
25. Brandon Saucedo – $4,160
26. Kevin Highbaugh – $3,891
27. Uncle Joe Guevara – $3,858
28. Armando Melendez – $3,556
29. Armando Gutierrez – $3,486
30. Dan Powers – $3,457
31. David Pereda – $3,412
32. Jeff Ervin – $3,152
33. Carlos Moreno – $3,097
34. Nate Arnold – $2,769
35. Kurt Larson – $2,768
36. Rose Saavedra – $2,724 (her money will significantly get an uptick in 2013 because she’s booked on many shows)
37. John Tohill – $2,523 (his money will go up in 2013 due to more bookings)
38. Lilia Galvez – $2,370
39. Stephen Sims – $2,179
40. Rick Davis – $2,174
41. JD Foreman – $2,073
42. Brad Ehrman – $2,050
43. Rena Lopez – $2,011
44. Monica Larson – $1,342
45. Mike Bray – $1,321
46. Ty Trimm – $1,012
47. Noelani Brown – $935
48. Peter Arnold – $726
49. Mike Figueroa – $725
50. Raymond Villalva – $660
51. Frank Whyte – $606
Kathi Burns, the idiotic fill-in Executive Officer (after George Dodd was pushed out), got a transfer to the California Highway Patrol and made $73,787.
Dave Thornton, the slimy former interim Executive Officer (whose actions forced DCA into a $750,000 sexual & racial harassment settlement years ago), is an “associate governmental program analyst” with DCA for $24,000.
Bill Douglas, the former CSAC Executive Officer who found himself jettisoned out of his Pest Control job, made $71,188. Douglas lost his job after he was charged with 7 misdemeanors. Instead of accepting a plea deal on November 20th at a trial readiness conference, he is rolling the dice and will have another TRC on April 5th. If he doesn’t take a deal then, then he goes to trial on April 18th.
Topics: Boxing, CSAC, Media, MMA, Zach Arnold | 1 Comment » | Permalink | Trackback |
On testosterone usage, UFC discovers you can’t put the shit back in the horse
By Zach Arnold | March 14, 2013
This item from Greg Savage on Twitter this afternoon:
Dana (White) says his goal is to eliminate TRT exemptions from UFC and state athletic commissions.
This incredibly rich statement comes from an organization building their FX reality show around Chael Sonnen, the modern day poster boy for testosterone usage in the business. His situation got the ball rolling for a whole lot of muscular fighters to proclaim hypogonadism and the need for using testosterone.
The usage of TRT is simply a way to dress up what is anabolic steroid usage. What is testosterone? The base chemical of all anabolic steroids.
The estimable Josh Nason has an excellent summary of Dana White’s press conference today, where Ariel Helwani & Kevin Iole mounted the pressure on Dana to justify the testosterone usage in MMA. I admire their more aggressive stance, even if I think the wrong questions are being asked.
The most damning question that must be broached but hasn’t been done so yet: Before UFC allowed testosterone usage on overseas shows and backed testosterone-using fighters like Chael Sonnen on U.S. events, name me a boxing or MMA promoter who aggressively promoted and pushed fighters who asked for testosterone passes due to hypogonadism. Compare the issue of commission-granted testosterone usage five years ago to where it is today. The answer: you can’t find a promoter outside the UFC that gave the testosterone plague the momentum it has today.
We now have a situation where UFC-friendly athletic commissions are giving out exemptions to fighters for testosterone using while also busting fighters for elevated levels of testosterone. That’s where we stand right now for drug testing in combat sports. Ask boxer Mickey Bey all about this. Next Wednesday, he’ll find out his suspension from Keith Kizer. You know, the same guy who has helped create the testosterone plague in combat sports right now. Nice of him to hold a steroid panel meeting next Thursday at 9 AM.
Back to Dana:
His goal is simple: to have all athletic commissions eliminate TRT exemptions for fighters. But it was when he was pressed by Ariel Helwani about why he stopped at TRT that things got a bit out of hand.
Helwani’s point was that there are assumptions that fighters are taking other drugs, so why not be aggressive in additionally testing for those? White hit back, asking Helwani about what fighters he was referring to, demanding him to say names. Helwani said he wasn’t going to do that and a clearly aggravated White kept on the attack.
“You give me a list of guys and I’ll test them myself,” White said.
The notion of fully trusting a promoter to handle drug testing issues is silly enough. Even sillier is the fact that UFC continues to book events, especially in California (where there are no rules or regulations on the books for fighters using testosterone), where top fights feature testosterone users. Frank Mir’s fighting in a high-profile bout on the UFC San Jose event on April 20th.
It is UFC that is squarely caught in the testosterone plague. They are the ones using Dr. Jeff Davidson for overseeing fighters using testosterone on events they self-regulate overseas. It is Dr. Davidson who communicates with state athletic commissions. It is Dr. Tim Trainor, Keith Kizer’s doctor in Nevada, who also finds himself stuck in this mess. It is Dr. Paul Wallace, the lead doctor for the California State Athletic Commission, who finds himself in the unenviable situation of having to figure out what to do with the testosterone-using fighters that UFC books on California shows. Completely and totally unfair to Dr. Wallace.
UFC is the promoter that opened the floodgates on the testosterone issue in combat sports and continues to book fighters who are getting the permission slips. Before UFC got their hands involved in the testosterone mess, we didn’t see athletic commissions handing out the amount of exemptions that they are handing out now.
So, why is Dana White (as Lorenzo Fertitta’s front man) puffing up his chest and talking tough about testosterone usage in MMA? Because of the reasons I’ve written about for a couple of years now regarding the plague on the sport. Remember when I predicted that the testosterone issue would absolutely suck up the oxygen in the room when it comes to the credibility o the sport? We’re seeing this in play now. UFC’s image when it comes to drug testing is about as credible as the horse racing industry. Suspend and fire marijuana users but continue giving permission notes to testosterone-using fighters.
My hypothesis as to what the two biggest reasons for UFC trying to salvage any sort of credibilty in the public has to do with the following: a) liability concerns and b) network suits at Fox who are nervous about the matter.
The liability issue is real and the lawyers cannot be happy with so many top UFC fighters using testosterone, especially given how the sport is legally considered ultrahazardous and an accident can happen at any time. If you are a Fox network suit and the prospects of an accident happening on a UFC telecast involving a testosterone-using fighter are legitimate, you want to try to get out on front of that issue as fast as you can.
However, it’s too late. You can’t put the toothpaste back in the tube. Top boxing and MMA promoters behind the scenes are furious about what has happened with the testosterone issue — and they have every right to be upset. The anger is justified.
And to add the proverbial cherry on top of the sundae, Nick Diaz tells Toronto radio station Georges St. Pierre is ‘on plenty of steroids’:
“I believe that he’s on plenty of steroids and I don’t believe they’ve tested him as well,” Diaz said. “I don’t care what they’re saying or marketing to the media. I don’t think either of us are going to be tested. … I doubt they’re standing over him, making sure he’s not on steroids.”
Asked by the hosts if he really meant what he just said, Diaz followed “Sure, why not? Lance Armstrong is on steroids, and it was really a ridiculous thing that he was on steroids, as far as he was concerned.”
The top guy on the Montreal card thinks UFC’s drug testing policies are a joke. He’s the poster boy of a fighter getting in trouble for marijuana but not for (approved) steroid usage.
Topics: CSAC, Media, MMA, UFC, Zach Arnold | 5 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Is the GSP/Nick Diaz fight a harder fight to sell to the public than first thought?
By Zach Arnold | March 13, 2013
Remember when Dana White said he wouldn’t put with the antics Nick Diaz demonstrated while fighting for Strikeforce?
Is the pressure to sell the fight mounting? Nick was a 3-to-1 underdog to start and now all the money has come in on GSP winning decisively.
So, instead of making his case in the press as to why he’ll win Saturday’s fight in Montreal, Nick Diaz has avoided the press. He reportedly turned down an ESPN feature from Josh Gross on Nick and the hard times Stockton is currently facing with bankruptcy. It makes this new item from Josh (Diaz reveals an image-conscious side) quite ironic.
Today, Nick no-showed the open fighter workouts and Dana White promised some sort of punishment (maybe a sternly-worded letter).
The only media Nick has done for the fight is last week’s conference call. The advertising budget for this fight is nowhere near the blanket coverage that was used for Ronda Rousey’s Anaheim fight.
In the words of evil Smoogy, “I guess Evil GSP (with his dark place) was a flop and now we’re going all-in on Generally Disobedient But Not Exactly Evil Nick Diaz.” Just keep the Honda sponsorship away from him. Soccer-mom approved.
Twitter was full of wise cracks about the white smoke puffing from Vatican City while Nick Diaz was AWOL.
Cesar Gracie told Ariel Helwani that Dana White approved Nick not showing up at the Wednesday workouts. Dana told Jim Rome that if Diaz no-shows the press conference, there will be punishment. Perhaps Dana’s in an extra-foul mood given that TUF drew only 1.12 million viewers last night on FX and the programming afterwards drew 2.4 million viewers.
Topics: Canada, Media, MMA, UFC, Zach Arnold | 13 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Andrew Cuomo’s thumbs up to MMA legislation in New York state
By Zach Arnold | March 13, 2013
He’s taken a hit in the polls over the last few months with his constituents. He views himself as a top contender in the 2016 Democratic Presidential primary sweepstakes.
Time for an image boost amongst younger voters. And the timing couldn’t be better with the political image of another New York power broker, Michael Bloomberg, getting slapped around after his failed attempt to ban sugary drinks (over a certain size limit, depending on what drink you want) in New York City and now going after Apple earbuds. The juxtaposition may be a nice bit of a political boost for Cuomo with younger voters.
The UFC is on the verge of getting what they want. The fans in the state may be getting four shows a year for the next three years once legislation passes.
Money talks. UFC has contributed campaign cash to many politicians on the Democrat side of the ledger. They also have an ace-in-the-hole with Harry Reid as the leader of the U.S. Senate. The connections are there. The money has been spent. We’re a step away from seeing Anderson Silva vs. Jon Jones in what would amount to a Jones homecoming fight at Madison Square Garden. MMA isn’t professional wrestling but you can bet that Vince McMahon is furious that Zuffa is closing on what he’s already deemed as family turf with a pending deal to run MSG.
Has Zuffa bought its way into New York? Yes, and it’s about to pay off for them. A far cry than the way they spent money on Xyience.
The spotlight will be on the beleaguered New York State Athletic Commission, a regulatory body not exactly held in regard as compared to New Jersey’s commission.
In the grand scheme of things, the money generated by UFC won’t make a dent in New York’s state budget given how much debt they have to pay back. However, it makes for nice political cover for Andrew Cuomo to use the “money, not morality” pitch to tell Sheldon Silver to send a bill to his desk for MMA legislation.
So much for last week’s Albany Times Union op-ed opposing MMA legislation: New York’s better than that.
I’m certain that Andrew Cuomo will be just as interested in the money he receives from Zuffa in political contributions in 2015 as he will be from UFC live event box office money.
Topics: Media, MMA, UFC, Zach Arnold | 5 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Notebook: A golden weekend for California’s commission
By Zach Arnold | March 12, 2013
To read all CSAC-related articles, dating back to May 2012, CLICK HERE.
“I wish it was this way every week.”
There have been a ton of shows happening in Southern California over the last couple of weeks. It’s been a hell of a deal in terms of revenue generated for Andy Foster & the California State Athletic Commission. Last weekend gave us a pretty good glimpse of activity:
- 3/7 – Bellator at Pechanga Resort & Casino (Spike TV)
- 3/8 – Golden Boy at Fantasy Springs Casino
- 3/8 – Don Chargin boxing event at Fox Theatre in Redwood City (only Northern California show)
- 3/9 – Dan Goossen at The Orange County Fair & Event Center (HBO)
- 3/9 – Thompson Boxing at Doubletree-Orange
- 3/9 – Thai Boxing
With Chris Arreola’s fight pushed to April, it means another OC Fair event & HBO show = $ for the commission.
Right now, the ratio of events happening in So. Cal versus Nor. Cal is over a 75/25 split. On Friday, Brett Roberts (BAMMA) has a show at the Commerce Casino. Top Rank has a show this coming weekend at the Home Depot Center in Carson, California on Saturday. The only major event up North is the upcoming UFC San Jose event at HP Pavilion, which has a stacked card top-to-bottom and a very good box office advance. The downside, unfortunately, is that it’s yet another UFC event in California featuring a top fight with a top fighter (Frank Mir) who is a testosterone user.
So, on the money side, things are looking up for Andy Foster. Momentum may be short-term, but you can’t beat it.
Behind the scenes, however, the in-fighting has never been as bad as I can ever recall. A lot of the usual suspects involved — but now we’re seeing people who have been on the sidelines forever in the California scene starting to get involved because they see what is happening and are figuring out that the landscape is changing relatively quickly.
One of the big bones of contention from the regulars is that for all of the big shows in California, expect to see familiar faces like Big John McCarthy, Herb Dean, Jason Herzog, Dr. Paul Wallace, Mark Relyea (viewed as the top inspector in the state now), and others. Yes, some locals will be booked on shows based on location, but there will be definitely be a push to bring the top names throughout the state for shows. This has got a lot of the insider-types mad, especially given the way the Department of Consumer Affairs in Sacramento used travel budgets & out-of-area bookings as a political hammer to bludgeon George Dodd out of his job as Executive Officer.
As for the push back against the new direction, a supporter of the new CSAC administration put it this way.
“There’s a North Dakota and a South Dakota. There’s North Carolina & South Carolina. There isn’t a Northern California and Southern California. It’s California.”
While the reaction is justifiable, the problem is that the issue of Northern & Central California not having a lot of CSAC-regulated shows is a serious dilemma & challenge for Andy Foster. Look at how many fighters, such as Robert Guerrero & Nonito Donaire, are having the biggest fights of their careers happening outside of the state and not on home turf. Andre Ward is the only fighter having his big fights on home turf in Oakland and part of that is because Dan Goossen is a California-based promoter. When only 20-25% of your shows in a state are happening in a section of the state that has 75% of the land mass, you know there is an imbalance somewhere. It isn’t as if money can’t be made in the Bay Area and in areas like Fresno. We saw it happen years ago. Even with the Kings, the Sacramento area always used to have big fights at Arco Arena. The Cow Palace used to be a big attraction for independent shows. And now, it’s as if everyone has vanished for good. Given how strong the Bay Area is when it comes to supporting sports, the area’s disconnect from the fight game doesn’t make a lot of sense.
Some significant developments regarding the structure of the commission and lawsuits outstanding (and incoming) are expected to play out over the next month. The activity is just starting.
Topics: Boxing, CSAC, Media, MMA, Zach Arnold | 1 Comment » | Permalink | Trackback |
The accuracy of fans vs. professional judges scoring fights? There’s an App for that
By Zach Arnold | March 9, 2013
After our article about the scoring controversy in the Doug Marshall fight last Thursday, an important reader of ours reached out to us to talk about the subject of fight scoring. Scott Morley of ijudgefights.com (on Twitter @smorleymma) is an MMA judge and founder of AsiaFights. He earned a masters degree at the International Space University and won the Google Student Lunar X Prize.
In other words, maybe it does take a rocket scientist to figure out how to fix the crappy fits of bout scoring we see in boxing & Mixed Martial Arts.
Here is the company’s blurb about their their fan-friendly fight-scoring App:
iJudgeFights is a live round-by-round scoring platform for fans of Mixed Martial Arts. It is somewhere between a social network and a Second Screen application in conception and is intended to allow arm-chair judges and leading insiders such as yourself the ability weigh in on any fight and have their voices heard.
Scores can be quickly and easily entered between rounds and shared across social networks. Scorecards can be saved and viewed by friends. Users can compare their scores with the official judges, their friends and leading MMA insiders.
In addition to 10 point must numerical scores, users can enter track which fighter they believed got the better of whom in striking, grappling, aggression, and control, as well Fight of the Night and several other metrics.
iJudgeFights is helmed by four passionate MMA fans, who have spent years traveling the globe in pursuit of a great fight. It is our aim to help make Mixed Martial Arts the biggest sport in the world.
iJudge Ltd is a media firm focused on providing more ways for fans to engage with their favorite programs and events. In February 2012, our first app, iJudgeFights won the Shanghai Startup Sauna, a seed acceleration contest for tech startups. IjudgeFights is also a graduate of Springboard Mobile.
A prototype has been in operation since the last year and new features and bug fixes are added every week.
With this as the background, we talked with Scott about his App and asked some key questions regarding the differences between how fans score fights versus how the professional judges score fights. The nuances may surprise you.
Continue reading this article here…
Topics: Media, MMA, Zach Arnold | 4 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
The Doug Marshall fight scoring dilemma (Bellator)
By Zach Arnold | March 8, 2013
On Thursday afternoon, Nick Diaz ranted and raved on a conference call about the current state of Mixed Martial Arts.
“This is mixed martial arts some boring a** s*** we’re watching,” he said. “I like Georges. I’m a fan of Georges St-Pierre. I appreciate everything he does, and how he does everything to win, and it meets the scoring criteria that sucks. It really f****d it up for everybody, makes it especially about the strong wrestlers.”
“People will see mixed martial arts for what it is and what it used to be,” he said. “They’ve manipulated it, the scoring, the judging system. I think they should take the elbows out, too. It nullifies the action. That’s how it works. One day people are going to realize it, and realize that this motherf**** was saying it the whole time.”
Timing is everything in life and Nick picked the perfect time to sound off. On Thursday night, Bellator ran an event from Pechanga in Temecula, California and one of the Spike TV fights was Doug Marshall vs. Sultan Aliev. Classic striker vs. take-down-and-stall style clash. Even Marshall, ahead of fight time, said he was dreading the prospects of what would happen in the fight.
The fight turned out to be a painful eyesore to watch and a nightmare for Sam Caplan.
Bellator has been on a hot streak lately when it comes to bringing the violence on their shows. Before the Marshall Aliev bout, 91% fan favorite Brett Cooper escaped with a victory over Dan Cramer. Cooper was losing the first two rounds and was gassed… until he nailed Cramer with a shot and then pounded with a few more punches before John McCarthy stopped the fight. The fans erupted and Cooper was crying.
Then came Sultan Aliev vs. Doug Marshall and Herb Dean as the referee. R1 was dominated by Aliev in boring fashion. R2 saw Marshall rock Aliev but continue to get taken down. R2 was the swing round. The fans thought Aliev won the round, while Bellator commentator Jimmy Smith scored it for Marshall. R3 was a round where Marshall was voicing his frustration to Herb Dean about Aliev taking him down and doing absolutely nothing with the top position. Marshall was correct. The problem is that Marshall had no answer for Aliev taking him down in the first place. It was a nightmare scenario that Nick Diaz was yelling about earlier in the day.
It seemed a fait a’ccompli that the judges would score the fight 29-28 for Sultan Aliev. Like a 90% chance of it happening.
However, this is California and the commission can’t seem to have a show that doesn’t have some sort of controversy or authority figure suffering from heartburn over a bad decision being made.
Judge Lester Griffin scored the fight 30-27 in favor of Aliev. He gave the swing round to Aliev. I wouldn’t score it that way personally, but there is a legitimate case to be made for scoring it 30-27. A difference of opinion, but understandable.
Judges Mike Beltran (King of the Cage referee famous for his crazy beard) and Jackie Denkin scored the fight 29-28… in favor of Doug Marshall. The defense of this scoring is much, much more difficult to justify than Griffin’s 30-27 score card for Aliev. At no point during the fight did Marshall display any sort of ability to stop the takedowns. He got a few shots in and justifiably won R2, but that’s about it. At the end of R3, Marshall went for a flying knee but Aliev flopped to the mat to avoid the shot in a kind of performance that Manu Ginobli would be proud of.
During the television broadcast, you could feel the internal angst & conflict from Sean Wheelock and Jimmy Smith. The fight was hideous to watch and the outcome seemed relatively clear as to who would win on points based on the Unified Rules.
“Jimmy and I have long learned, don’t speculate on judges’ score cards.”
When the score was read in favor of Marshall by split decision… the fans at Pechanga were happy. Doug Marshall was ecstatic. The Bellator TV crew wasn’t sure what to make of it. Sultan Aliev walked out of the cage pissed. Gamblers who bet on the fight and lost money on the decision were pissed. And you know what? Everyone’s reaction is reasonable here. I don’t blame Marshall for being thrilled with the decision. I don’t blame Aliev for being upset. He had every right to be.
Mike Beltran and Jackie Denkin, in my opinion, made the wrong call here. If you scored the fight based on emotion, I can understand giving Marshall the nod and not rewarding the hard-to-watch fight style of Sultan Aliev. However, if you applied that kind of logic to scoring Ben Askren’s previous fights, he would have lost at least half of his bouts. The rules are the rules here. Aliev did what he had to do to win the fight on points. It was painful to watch and a crowd-killer for sure, but the rules on the books are what they are.
When Andy Foster gets back to the Sacramento office on Monday, I think he has to make phone calls to Mike Beltran and Jackie Denkin to review the scoring for that fight. Whether the Executive Director chalks up the scoring to a difference of opinion or something more serious that results in pulling Beltran & Denkin off of some shows for a while, I’m not sure what call should be made there. However, an evaluation is in order.
I am reminded of what Teddy Atlas has been recently preaching on television, which is some sort of real-time fan scoring system to replace the judges being used by athletic commission. Teddy makes the case that the fans often get the scoring right on many more occasions than the commission judges do.
In the case of Marshall/Aliev, Bellator’s App allowed fans to score the fight — and the consensus was 29-28 Aliev with the swing round of R2 going to Aliev. However, they gave R3 to Doug Marshall. By that curious round scoring, you can make both a case for Lester Griffin’s 30-27 scoring and the 29-28 scoring for Marshall (the two outliers to a standard 29-28 score in favor of Aliev) based on the way you scored R2.
Think about it this way — because the fans said Marshall won R3, then Beltran & Denkin can claim that Marshall got the swing round (R2) and thus there’s your 29-28 decision. Griffin can say, hey, if you give Aliev R3 then R1 & swing round R2 gets you 30-27. The way the fans scored the fight on the App gave the two outliers some cover here for what should be a run-of-the-mill 29-28 Aliev win. More details at MMA Decisions.
Cooper and Marshall will face other in the Bellator tournament finals.
Topics: Bellator, CSAC, Media, MMA, Zach Arnold | 50 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |