Personal Thoughts on recent events in MMA

Starting with the most recent and working back:
1) Anthony "Rumble" Johnson missing weight, again
2) Cristiane "Cyborg" Santos tests positive for PEDs
3) Ronda Rousey drops weight-class and gets an immediate title shot
4) Miguel Torres, Rashad Evans and Forrest Griffin - very similar offenses, vastly different punishments




OK, lets start with #1: Anthony "Rumble" Johnson

Johnson was an MMA fighter in the UFC's welterweight (170 pounds) division. He is a rather large man for a welterweight (pictures showing him comparable in size to light-heavyweight, 205 pound, team mate Rashad Evans), and as a result, has missed weight on two different occasions, each time being fined a portion of his "To Show" pay. There have been calls for him for years to move up to middle weight (185 pounds), as the cut would be easier on him and likely less damaging to his body.

Finally, he agreed, and was scheduled to fight veteran, former Light-Heavyweight and UFC 12 Tournament Champion (and current middleweight contender) Vitor Belfort. Weigh-ins were this afternoon, and despite being in a division that allows him to cut 15 pounds less than he usually tries to, Johnson managed to STILL miss weight, officially weighing in at 197 pounds. That's 12 pounds over the 185 limit (11 pounds counting the 1 pound leeway they give for non title fights). That's the most he's ever missed by.

He's stating that there was a medical reason for his failure to make weight, and that he managed to get down to 187.5 but was so dehydrated that the on-site Doctor insisted that he rehydrate immediately or suffer possible serious complications.

Regardless if that's true or not, this man should not have been anywhere close to needing to dehydrate himself that badly to make 185 pounds, since he never encountered this before cutting to 170. This guy obviously needs new diet and health coaches as whomever he's using are obviously clueless.

As it is, Rumble is going to be lucky if he has a job after the fight tomorrow, win or lose.

Vitor Belfort made weight, and despite Rumble not coming close, agreed to still fight as long as Johnson kept his weight under 205 pounds. A loss, or failing to make 205, will obviously be the end of Anthony Johnson's UFC career, and quite deservedly. He has repeatedly shown a lack of professionalism, of respect for his opponent, and of ability in how to properly prepare for his fights.

Vitor by career-ending KO.

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 2) Cristiane "Cyborg" Santos fails a drug test

The Strikeforce Women's 145 pound champion and arguably best female fighter in the sport has suffered a major setback that brings into question her entire career. Following her 16 second blitz win over contender Hiroko Yamanaka, Santos' mandatory post-fight drug test came back positive for anabolic steroids. The win was overturned and is now a "No Contest", and she was stripped of her title.

Now, I think most people who were aware of what happened live in a jurisdiction where "Innocent until Proven Guilty" is the way of the law, so, until she failed a test, we had to assume she was clean, BUT, she was very odd looking for a female, even for an elite athlete. Rumors, comments, and questions about possible steroid use have been around ever since she started making it big, as she is rather masculine.

The truth is out, though she claims it was an accidental dosing due to a tainted diet suppliment. However, that seems to be the case with most first-time positive tests. It's so common an excuse it's bordering on cliche.

As it is, Strikeforce's Female 145 division is pretty much dead in the water. Since Gina Carano left following her defeat to Cyborg (to crown the division's first champion), it's pretty much been Cyborg and whatever normally-135 pound fighter they can pay to move up . Then came Ronda Rousey, who seemed on the verge of challenging Cyborg, though, citing a lack of experience (she started her career in 2011 and has only 4 pro fights, all first round armbars) she decided to move to the 135 pound division, which has a larger roster of quality fighters. As I said, it's pretty much dead in the water, now.

The thing with a positive steroid test, is we have no real idea how long they've been using. Was this the first time or did she just mistime her cycle and this is the first time she got caught? How many of her fights were fought while she was using? How much of an effect did this have on her ability to train? If you could find an alternative universe where the only difference was she never used, and went from there, would she have been as dominate as she has been? Would one of her previous opponents have found a way to beat her?

We will never know. All we can find out is what this extra scrutiny, and a 1 year suspension, will have on her ability to train. Will she still be a badass, will this mentally mess her up, will her entire career from now till retirement be ever tainted with this scandal, even if she passes every test she does from now on?

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3) Ronda Rousey dropping from 145 to 135, and leapfrogging Sarah Kaufman for a title shot

Ronda Rousey is an Olympic level Judoka, taking the bronze in Beijing. She is also hot. The  "too pretty to be a fighter" kind of hot, almost to the level of Gina Carano. She is 4 fights into her professional career, sporting a perfect 4-0 record, each fight ending in round 1, in less than 60 seconds, by arm-bar, giving her a total of 2:18. Toss in her 3 first round amateur wins (again all armbars in less than 60 seconds each)  and it's 4:02. That's right, 7 fights, 7 wins, and in less than one standard 5 minute round.


Because there is such a lack of legitimate competition at 145, she was being talked about soon fighting Cyborg for her title. For one reason or another, she decided to move to the 135 pound division and work towards that title before fighting Cyborg. She was also talking about how she wanted to fight for the title immediately.

Yes, without ever having fought at the weight, or even knowing if she could safely cut to 135, she wanted to fight for the title. And thus began the war of tweets between Ronda, current champ Miesha Tate and former champion and generally considered the #1 contender Sarah Kaufman.

Sarah Kaufman was the inaugural champion of the 135 pound division, and suffered her first (and to-date, only) defeat at the hands of Marloes Coenen (Marloes then went on to lose the title to current champ Miesha Tate). She also holds a win over Miesha Tate and this was looking to be a good fight, for the title and to give Miesha a chance to avenge an early loss.

The powers that be, however, felt different. They saw the attention that Ronda was getting, with this online confrontation, with her thoughts on what Strikeforce should do with womens mma (merge the 135 and 145 divisions, either at 135 if Cyborg could make it, or maybe at 140), and insinuations that Cyborg was using steroids and that was one of the reasons she hasn't dropped to 135 already (allegations proved true just days later). So, as per usual, the powers that be decided that Sarah Kaufman could wait and Ronda Rousey would match Miesha Tate for her title.

Which is complete and utter bullshit. It's shit like that which causes more damage to the already fragile legitimacy of womens MMA than Cyborg's failed piss test. It shows that your record doesn't need to be there if you can draw attention to yourself.


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4) Miguell Torres/Rashad Evans/Forrest Griffin, Sonnen/Marquardt, and Rousey/Kaufman and how marketing value counts for more than legitimacy and consistancy.

In short: Forrest Griffin tweeted "And Rape is the new Missionary". It was a comment he made due to all the Penn State scandal coverage on TV and how flooding the media about a subject can numb our responses (much like video games and horror movies desensitizing kids to violence).

He made an appology and donated money to a rape crisis centre and that was it.

Rashad Evans, at the first press conference for his upcoming fight with Phil Davis, live in front of a good number of press, told Davis that he would "Put my hands on you like the guy from Penn State", a direct reference to the scandal and the coach. Davis attended Penn State.

Dana commented on it saying "It was in the heat of the moment" and nothing else was done.

Miguel Torres tweeted "If a rape van was called a surprise van more women wouldn't mind going for rides in them. Everyone likes surprises." It was a reference to the TV show "Workaholics", which was on at the time.

He was immediately let go from the show, despite his comments being no worse than Forrest's and much less than Rashad's. Even when fans raised shit with Dana and told him that it was a reference to a TV show, Dana didn't care.

It took a formal apology, a donation to a rape crisis centre, "sensitivity" classes and a 20 day limbo period before he was brought back.

When questioned about his varied responses, Dana White commented that he liked to take these situations on a "case by case basis". It just so happens that a perennial Light-Heavyweight title contender (and former champ) and one of the two guys Dana credits with saving the UFC (and former champion himself) basically got free rides, while the third guy (himself a former WEC champ) who was working his way back up  got tossed under the proverbial bus.

Nate Marquardt and Chael Sonnen have a lot in common. Both have fought Anderson Silva for his middleweight title, both lost, and both use Testosterone Replacement Therapy. Now, in most jurisdictions, TRT is allowed IF approved in advance by the applicable Athletic Commission. There is a great deal of double-checking, testing and medical consultation required to get permission (basically you need to show that your natural testosterone levels are constantly lower than normal). Once you get permission, you need to keep your levels within the set limits of the Athletic Commission (so as to not give you an advantage akin to steroids).

Chael Sonnen passed his prefight tests, fought Anderson Silva, came within 3 minutes of winning before being submitted and failed his post-fight mandatory test. During the investigation, Chael's permission to use TRT came into question. During the hearing, Chael was shown not to have followed the proper procedure for legitimately using TRT, specifically failing to inform the commission that he was on it. Chael commented that he did inform the commission, but the commission head said in no uncertain terms that he never received any such notification. Chael then went to say he meant he told his manager to inform the commission, to which the commission head effectively called Bull Shit.

At first, Chael was going to receive an indefinite suspension (effectively ending his MMA career), but that was eventually reduced to 1 year and then to 6 months. During that suspension, Chael, who has a day-job as a Real Estate Agent, was charged with and plead guilty to Real Estate Fraud (paying a $10000 fine and losing his Agent's license, permanently). Ever since this, Chael has gone on to repeatedly deny his guilt for the TRT issue.

What did Dana do? Nothing. He welcomed Chael back and started planning how he was going to get Chael back in against Anderson Silva.

Nate Marquardt failed his pre-fight test, which caused him to be pulled out of his fight against Rick Storey (was originally supposed to be Anthony Johnson but he pulled due to injury). This caused a shuffle in the card (the last of several) and pissed off Dana. This wasn't a title fight, this wasn't a PPV, this wasn't even a big card on Spike. This was Nate making his 170 pound debut on a "UFC on Versus Live" card, which was scheduled as the last card the UFC would put on Versus (the Fox deal being announced a couple months later). Nate lost his job because of it. Another immediate, knee-jerk reaction, typical of Dana.

The state's Athletic Commission suspended Marquardt's license, but reinstated it the next day (fight day) after testing his levels again and finding them to be within the stated limit. He was still fired.

Nate, eventually, gave an interview to air his side of the issue (on "The MMA Hour with Ariel Helwani"). He stated that Doctors found his testosterone levels to be abnormally low after Nate complained of poor health and constant fatigue, and recommended he begin TRT. In order to get him back to normal levels they started him on a slightly more aggressive dosage than normal, but miscalculated and didn't lower the dosage closer to fight time, which resulted in the above-normal levels he had.

To this day, Nate Marquardt hasn't fought. He was looking into Bellator, but couldn't come to a deal (likely wanted more money than they were willing to pay). He eventually signed on with UK based BAMMA to fight in their welterweight division. He was scheduled to make his debut at BAMMA 8, but then his fight was delayed (by BAMMA) to BAMMA 9, and was to fight Yoshiuki Yoshida. The entire BAMMA 9 event was delayed a month, and Nate's manager requested to be released from the contract due to going so long without his first fight. No word yet on where he might go.

So,
Sonnen: jackass, felon, liar, tried to deny his guilt repeatedly- still has his job and status as #2 middleweight.
Marquardt: overall decent guy, not the greatest fighter but better than most, family man, accepted his guilt and punishment - Dana says he'll never fight for the UFC again.



Rousey/Kaufman

My main points about this are in the previous section. In short, despite only fighting for 1 year, and never having fought in the 135 pound division, Ronda Rousey leapfrogs former Champion and generally accepted next-in-line (who has a win over the current champ) Sarah Kaufman because Rousey is more marketable (she's got trash talking skills akin to Sonnen and she's hot, while Kaufman is more respectable and not as hot. Kaufman isn't "Cyborg" levels, as Sarah can clean up quite well from what I've seen, it's just she doesn't seem to care too much about that. She's a fighter not a model. I certainly wouldn't kick her out of bed, and not because she'd likely kick my ass if I tried, well, not ONLY because of that.)

What does this show? Dana favours those who can make him money, even if they paint MMA in a poor light. He's showing that entertainment is more valued than legitimate sporting competition.