February MMA Q&A

February MMA Q&A dealing with PEDs in MMA, Anderson Silva's failed drug test, and other stuff.

(411mania.com)

A lot has happened since the last time I held a press conference. Before I open up the floor for MMA questions, I must address an important topic that was e-mailed to me and has nothing to do with MMA.

Jeremy, You are the only one who writes for 411  and actually answers when people make comments. In view of that, I have wondered why Vince has not reached out to THE MOUNTAIN from Game of Thrones to come in and confront Lesner, at 6'9 he dwarfs Lesner, and even if all he did was job to Lesner at some point in the last few months to really affirm the Beast it could have had him on TV 3 more times and one extra title defense to keep hardcore 30 day defense rule people appeased( lol). Just a thought to ponder. 

That certainly is a thought to ponder. First off, I must debunk this notion that I answer comments on the site. I don’t. I don’t even read the comments. I have someone who does that for me. If you email me, then I’ll use that email (if it’s any good, like this one) in a future column. But that’s it. So please, readers, don’t think that if you leave a comment that I’m going to respond in the comments. Because I’m not. 

Now, this is a fantastic idea. The Mountain just broke some 1,000 year old weight lifting record by carrying a 1,433 pound tree trunk five steps. Suck on that, Mark Henry. THE BEAST vs. THE MOUNTAIN would shatter all box office records. The Mountain’s battle against Oberyn drew the highest rating in Game of Thrones history. Combine that with Brock Lesnar’s PPV history (he’s the only fighter in UFC history to have three PPVs do over 1 million buys) and you have a recipe for the biggest fight in combat sports entertainment history. Someone get this man on the WWE writing squad. 

I’ll now open the floor for MMA related questions.

EVERYONE IS ON DRUGS!!!!!

Do you have a question?

IS EVERYONE ON DRUGS?!?!?!?!

Yes.

WHY IS EVERYONE ON DRUGS?!?!?!?!

Larry is telling me that I don’t have enough column space to really get into this question. So I’ll give you the spark notes. 

*MMA drug testing is a joke. There’s kind of out of competition drug testing, but even that’s been scaled back. And even if you are tested out of competition before the fight, the results aren’t revealed until after the fight. So you’re still allowed to fight and get paid, you’ll just lose part of purse. But at least you’re still getting paid. 

*Fighters don’t make a lot of money. So it benefits them to gain an extra advantage in order to move up the rankings, get better fights, and make more money. And once they are at or the near the top, they don’t want to lose their spot, so they just keep on taking PEDs. 

*There’s no punishment for failing a drug test or five. Vitor Belfort has failed multiple drug tests in his career. He hasn’t fought since November 2013 and he failed a drug test in February 2014. Belfort’s next fight will be for some version of the middleweight title. I’d use drugs too if it meant getting better fights. 

Has Anderson Silva ruined his legacy by testing positive for PEDs?

No, and Michael Bisping is an idiot. 

Will Anderson Silva ever fight again?

Probably not. Before testing positive for PEDs, I thought the only fight left for him that made sense was against Georges St. Pierre. But after this positive test, there’s no way that’s happening given St. Pierre’s hard stance against drugs. He’ll want blood samples, urine samples, hair samples, fingernail samples, spit samples, etc… leading up to the fight and I’m sure some of that stuff is against Anderson’s religion. 

Do you believe Anderson is innocent?

Yes. I believe his son spiked his drinks. We all know that Anderson’s family didn’t want him to fight again after the second Chris Weidman fight where his shin snapped in half. But Anderson is a fighter and wanted at least one more fight. His son was worried about him, and understandably so. Everyone watching UFC 168 thought that was the end of the “The Spider.” It was pretty amazing to see him back 13 months later. Just remember how distraught you were as a fan to see Anderson crying in pain after his shin snapped. Now think about it from Anderson’s kids perspective. They probably thought that their dad would never walk away. Combine that with them seeing their dad unconscious for the first time in his career months earlier and you can understand why they didn’t want him to retire.

His kids were worried about him. So they gave him a little insurance. They spiked his drinks to help his leg heal faster and to make sure that he could perform at 39 how he did at 29. If Anderson knew he were on PEDs, he would’ve put Nick Diaz away with ease. But instead of fought with a sense of fear because he was worried about his leg and his chin. He just wanted to get through the fight in one piece because he thought he was a normal 39-year-old fighter coming off two brutal losses. 

Just like Jon Jones’ one-day rehab stint, the truth will come out. 

NICK DIAZ NO LONGER ON A LOSING STREAK! 209 BITCH!

Yes, because Silva was popped for PEDs, his win over Diaz was overturned to a no contest

HOWEVER. I’d like to argue that because Diaz once again failed a drug test for weed, Silva’s win should stand. Both guys failed drug tests, which should cancel each other out, leaving the initial result of the fight to be the official result. I cite Sherk vs. Franca as example. At UFC 73, both Hermes Franca and Sean Sherk failed post-fight drug tests, but Sherk’s win stood in the record books. The UFC stripped Sherk of his lightweight title because they just wanted an excuse to put it on BJ Penn, but Sherk vs. Franca is still in the record books as a victory for Sherk. 

Are you a lawyer?

No, but I’ve seen every episode of Franklin & Bash and my best friend is a lawyer who is willing to represent Anderson in court. 

Why do fans care so much when a fighter fails a drug test?

It’s a funny thing. Athletes in every sport fail drug tests. Hell, athletes in every sport do far worse things than fail a drug test. Some of them have legit drug problems and some of them abuse their significant others. Yet for some reason, when a MMA fighter fails a drug test, everyone gets outraged and acts like they’ve lost faith in everything they’ve ever known and that MMA is in the worst sport in the world. There seemed to be more outrage when Anderson Silva tested positive for PEDs than when Thiago Silva held his wife at gunpoint. 

It’s tough to know why MMA fans care so much when a fighter fails a drug test. My theory is that they are paying so much money to watch this sport that they hate being tricked by athletes. You can watch the entire NFL/NBA/MLB/NHL seasons in HD for $813.90. That’s every game from the four major sports in America. Or you can watch an entire year of UFC (PPVs and Fight Pass) for $899.75. People don’t like spending money on something and then find out they are being lied to about it. 

Remember that pretty much every single MLB player was on PEDs in the late 90’s, but instead of getting upset, we watched in awe as Mark McGuire, Sammy Sosa, and Barry Bonds raked it out of the yard. Maybe we were naive because they didn’t actually fail a drug test at the time, but you could tell they were on something. Same goes with MMA today. Guys might not fail tests, but you can tell that most of them are on something. 

The difference is people aren’t pay $60 a week to see McGuire hit home runs. If they were then I suspect the outrage would be the same, if not worse. 

How will UFC 184 do on PPV without the Chris Weidman vs. Vitor Belfort fight?

Well, they didn’t have to cancel the PPV, so that’s a start. Also, Ronda Rousey is the biggest draw in MMA history, so it should do better now that all the marketing is focussed on her. 

Truthfully, UFC should throw a parade if the event does over 300,000 buys. Rousey has headlined two PPVs and they’ve averaged 400,000 buys. She’s been the co-main event of some high selling PPVs, but it’s not like she brought in that many extra buys to Chris Weidman vs. Anderson Silva 2 or Chris Weidman vs. Lyoto Machida. Her fight against Sara McMann did 350,000 buys, which was a really good number given the weak co-main event (Daniel Cormier vs. Patrick Cummins) 

UFC 184 has an even weaker co-main event (Holly Holm vs. Raquel Pennington) and fans just spent a lot of money in January buying UFC 182 and 183. 

But Ronda Rousey is in the new Fast & Furious and Entourage movies and millions of people will watch those movies so obviously millions of people will want to watch her. 

Are PEDs weapons?

Yes, they are, Ronda. It’s like if a fighter brought a baseball bat into the cage. That’s actually a pretty cool idea. Let’s have one fighter juice up as much as they want and another fighter be allowed to use a baseball bat and see who wins. 

WHY WAS MY FIGHT CHANGED?!?!?!

Who is this?

Don’t worry about that. Just tell me why I’m no longer fighting.

I don’t know, man.

WHY DON’T YOU KNOW?!?!?!

Have you tried asking Dana?

They don’t tell us anything. We all find out about fight changes from the media and twitter.

Well that doesn’t seem right. 

Thanks for your time. I have to check my Facebook wall to see who my next opponent is.

No problem. Hope your farm is doing well. 

Will Rashad Evans ever fight again?

Probably, but it won’t be pretty. Rashad has already been out of action since November 2013. Following a second knee surgery, he’s going to be out another 6-7 months. So the best case scenario is that he’ll fight in November 2015, two years after his last fight. He’ll be 36 at that point and coming off multiple knee surgeries. That doesn’t seem like a recipe for success. 

Maybe you could headline a Fight Night event with Evans vs. Quinton Jackson 2 and milk that rematch for a decent ratings pop, but Rashad has accomplished all he’s going to accomplish at this point. 

Do you still hate Rashad Evans?

I’m not here to talk about the past. 

Are you excited for the UFC Press Conference on PEDs on Wednesday?

No.

Why?

Because nothing will actually come of it. This has been an issue for years and it’s been ignored. Because Anderson Silva failed a test I’m supposed to believe things will change? If that’s the case, then he truly is the greatest of all-time. 

What are you up to tonight?

I’ll take one more question.

When is Samer Kadi coming back?

That’s all the time we have. Thanks folks.