Chael Sonnen Saga and Stunning UFC Cut

I have held from writing a blog about this for two days to the let dust settle so that way I can go through nothing but the facts.

MMAjunkie.com first reported that Chael Sonnen had failed his post fight drug test from his August 7th fight with Anderson Silva.

Sunday would have been a perfect time to write the blog, but for these stories you have to wait for the facts to come in. According to California State Athletic Commission's executive director George Dodd, "Chael Sonnen tested for well above normal levels of testosterone." On Monday, Sports Illustrated's Josh Gross reported that Chael Sonnen told CSAC he might test positive for an above average amount of testosterone. Here is an interesting fact about CSAC policy: Fighters in California can take (PEDS) Performance Enhancing Drugs if a proper medical justification exists and they fulfill commission guidelines. Now stay with me, If Chael Sonnen admitted to the CSAC that he might test positive why was Sonnen allowed to fight? Rule 303c requires lab to confirm + results before the CSAC can stop a fight. These are the facts of this case, and they are indisputable.

There have been some to argue that elevated level of Testosterone can occur when one is a high level performance athlete, I believe the term is called: overtrained athlete syndrome. As Dr. Johnny Benjamin points out in his recent column @MMAjunkie.com, it does increase the level of testosterone but not to the point of showing up on pre or post fight urine tests. The amount found in Chael Sonnen's system was to the extent of 6-7 times the normal amount. Now for the consequences that Chael faces. He and his camp have said that they plan on appealing this failed drug test at the next CSAC meeting which I believe is November 9th. However what this means for his UFC re-match with Anderson Silva is that it will be put on hold, Chael may never get it back. A similar situation occurred Feburary 13th, 2009 MMA Legend, Ken Shamrock easily defeated his oversized opponent Ross Clifton. After the fight, Ken tested positive for steroids and was banned for a year. Chael faces a similiar fate as I do not see what he can argue that could change the CSAC's mind about suspending and fining him.

According to MMAJunkie.com's latest development about the story, "According to Dodd, Sonnen was flagged first on Sept. 2 after an initial test revealed the presence of a performance-enhancer. A second, more-rigorous test conducted at the UCLA's Olympic Analytical Laboratory confirmed the results. The laboratory is used by the U.S. Olympic Committee and is the world's largest World Anti-Doping Agency-certified facility." There is a possibility for tampering or a mistake, but considering it is used by the highest levels of athletic competition, I would think would be right more times than not.

What can be done to improve our sport to more harshly punish those that test positive. There are several theories that some have come up with it. A) Slap them with a harsh suspension. While suspensions do work, they could always fight overseas in places such as Japan where athletic commissions do not exist. B) My personal favorite, hit 'em where it hurts the most, their wallet. Fine the crap out of them. Instead of the fine being 2,500 for Sonnen make it 25,000. Once fighters' wallets get lighter, they will take a second look at whether the positives outweigh the negatives as far as taking PEDs. It is not the job of the organizations such as the UFC and Strikeforce, it is the Athletic Commissions jobs to get harsher penalties for those who constantly fail their drug tests.

What do ya'll think can be done to squash the continuing problem of athletes trying to beat the system?

What I find funny was that two weeks ago, Chael Sonnen signed up to join Randy Couture's Extreme Couture's supplement line. Fascinating fact that is not being reported right now.

Well thats all I can muster for the Chael Sonnen positive test.........for now.

Last topic

Why was Efrain Escudero cut from the UFC? He was (3-2) in the UFC losses to only Evan Dunham, and Charles Oliveira both future champs in my opinion. He defeated Phillipe Nover, Cole Miller via KO, and Dan Lauzon. I enjoy watching an Efrain Escudero fight. He did miss weight his last fight by 4 pounds. Even with that, was that really enough to let him go. We must not forget he is also a TUF season 8 winner. I think he offers way too many good qualities for him to not be cut. I think if there isn't something else such as an incident that is not being reported right now, then that would make sense. This is a huge loss to the UFC and I hope he becomes successful in all "future endeavors."

Thats all for now,

Happy Hunting.

Reaction to Ultimate Gracie

Wow. What a great documentary. It doesn't seem so long ago that the UFC was Martial Arts vs. Martial Art. Before the UFC 1 grapplers were considered 2nd class martial artists. Grapplers were thought of as inferior to the traditional striking arts such as Taekwondo, Karate, Kickboxing, Boxing among others. For me, watching this documentary took me back, I was only 8 years old when I saw UFC 3 with Kimo vs. Royce Gracie. I couldn't believe what I was watching, I expected this Kimo guy to break Royce Gracie in two. Even though I was only 8, I couldn't fully grasp what I watching until I go to High School and watched it again. As a HS wrestler it amazed me how someone could win a fight off of their back, in what I thought, and many people thought was an inferior position. The first 4 UFCs really opened the eyes of the Martial Art world and saw that if you can take a pure striker to the ground, then you would completely nullify their superior advantage on the feet. What I think was the even more impressive victory than the one over Kimo, was at UFC 4 when he defeated Dan Severn, who outweighed him by 70-80 Pounds. Looking back at that victory opened eyes of many that even wrestlers can be defeated by this new thing called Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu.

As pointed out in the documentary, today nearly every UFC fighter has had some training in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu even if its only for defensive purposes. I got the chance to meet Royce Gracie Last year and I am very glad I went. He had an unique aura to him that combined: being an over the top nice guy, with the stoic look of I can whip someone up if needed. Royce Gracie is truly a legend in the sport and so are all of the Gracies for revolutionizing Martial Arts. Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu is as important to Mixed Martial Arts as the forward pass is to American Football. It is not the end all be all but a very important tool. If you get the chance to learn Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, do it, I don't think you will regret it.

UFC FIght Night 22 Review

Wow what a great night of fights

First fight of the night Ross Pearson vs. Cole Miller, Miller showed improved standup as he dropped Pearson and immediately cinched in the choke and tapped him. Miller will be a force at 155. Very impressive.

Jim Miller vs. Gleison Tibau.

Jim Miller just keeps improving. He put in a great display in this fight and I expect nothing but good things from him.

Charles Oliveira vs. Efrain Escudero.

First off, what was with the referee not giving Charles the full five minutes to rest after a low blow? He needs to brush up on his Unified Rules of MMA. I had the fight 19-19 going into the third when after the illegal low blow, Charles came out like a flying banshee, throwing strikes and locking up a standing Rear Naked Choke. Which was just sick. That was the highlight of the night.

Rousimar Palhares vs. Nate Marquardt.

I didn't get to watch this fight until about 30 minutes ago as I was out late last night. I got a ton of tweets about, Nate Greasing and what not. I just thought it was a hell of an escape. Last time I checked MMA fighters are able to shave there legs and get a good sweat before the fights. I will wait to judge. I don't think he greased. Either way, Palhares broke rule #1 of MMA, always protect yourself at all times.

Happy Hunting

Shark Fights Good, Bad

I don't know what can be done about having piss poor officials, but something must be done. There is no reason why that Houston Alexander- Rameau Sokodjou fight should have lasted that much longer due to the amount of damage Rameau was taking. There needs to be a nationwide exam all MMA officials must take in order to be shown to be fully competent. One could have even made an argument for stopping the fight in the first round due to the amount of damage that Houston took in the first round. When UFC Fight Night 22 finishes up tomorrow night, that will be 4 major MMA events in Texas within only a month. We aren't exactly helping our cause with bad officiating in Strikeforce: Houston and last Saturday with Shark Fights. We need better officials in Texas. I am hoping that tomorrow's UFC Fight Night goes off without a hitch and that there won't be any bad officiating. What was with the official that stood Masvidal and Daley up after Daley basically laid there and begged for a stand up. You can't as an official let the fighters sway your decision making, what he should of done was say,"Find a way back up."

Shark Fights did have solid fights on the main card and I thought they were all exciting. How about the commentary team with Bas Rutten and Don Frye? They were awesome I thought, not very politically correct, but I like that. They need to keep those two together for the next Shark Fights, to do otherwise would be a big mistake.

Happy Hunting

How Many Illegal Strikes Are Enough?

Last night in Bellator's lightweight feature between Carey Vanier and Rich Clementi, in the 3rd Round Carey Vanier threw two illegals knees while Rich was touching the Matt with 3 points. These knees are deemed illegal under the unified rules of MMA. There are several things wrong with this situation.
First, the referee didn't know they were illegal knees until Rich Clementi and his cornermen said something about it. Referee incompetence is the last thing we need at any level of MMA. Referee incompetence can be quickly solved with a universal test all MMA officials must take and getting more qualified people to officiate.

Second, how much damage does one have to take with an illegal blow before you take points away? There seems to be different schools of thought. Recently back in March, this exact situation happened in the UFC with Paul Buentello vs. Cheick Kongo. Buentello would put his hand on the Mat each time Cheick would throw knees to deem those blows now illegal. Last night, in Tachi Palace, a fighter had a point taken away for a low blow, the first one. There doesn't seem to be any form of unity across the board with accidental illegal blows so it is left to the referee's discretion. This is an easy fix. Have it written in the rules that if an illegal blow causes a man to bleed then a point is deducted. Groin shots will remain the same because they seem to be unavoidable in MMA since they happen so often. Multiple shots will be punished with a point deduction.

Third, The three point stance itself needs to come under question also. I will have an article on Sunday with my thoughts of why I think knees from a three point stance should be legal.

Fourth, what was with the judging of the Matt Horwich vs. Eric Schambari? I thought Matt Horwich would win, but what referee gave the fight to Horwich? I watched that fight twice last night and couldn't for the life of me give one round to Horwich much less two and the nod over Schambari. Matt Horwich needs to seriously work on his striking, maybe train with Wanderlei Silva or Vitor Belfort?

Happy Hunting

Mayweather's Rant, MMA Outside of the UFC

Final Thoughts on Heel Hooks and getting them "bani-shed (to quote Romeo & Juliet)"

Bottom line is several fighters have come out and said namely Nate Marquardt, Mike Brown, Anthony Pettis, Vinny Magalhaes, Renzo Gracie, and former UFC Champ Bas Rutten have all agreed that you can't take heel hooks out of MMA. I'm ok with that, I am just glad that the debate got started. If any developments come from that I will talk more about it but I have made my case and I am moving onto other subjects.

2nd Topic Wow what a weekend of fighting non Zuffa events

Tonight, Tachi Palace Fights 6: High Stakes

• Doug Marshall (185.6) vs. Kyacey Uscola (185.2)
• Anthony Ruiz (184.2) vs. Leopoldo Serao (183) - for vacant middleweight title
• Corey Hill (155.6) vs. Rob McCullough (155.8)
• Micah Miller (145.6) vs. Diego Saraiva (145.6)
• Luis Gonzalez (126) vs. Darrell Montague (125.4)
• Collin Hart (184.6) vs. Joseph Henle (185.2)
• Stephanie Frausto (115) vs. Paulina Ramirez (114)
• Andrew Martinez (182.8) vs. Mark Matthews (185.8)
• Art Becerra (144.8) vs. Gabriel Solorio (144.8)

Bellator Fighting Championships 28 in New Orleans

• Lightweight bout: Rich Clementi vs. Carey Vanier^[1]
• Featherweight bout: Georgi Karakhanyan vs. Anthony Leone^[1]
• Lightweight bout: Eric Larkin vs. Marcus Andrusia^[1]
• Middleweight bout: Matt Horwich vs. Eric Schambari^[1]

Friday there is Shine Fights: Lightweight Tourney 1 night.

MFC 26 .

Saturday Night there is Shark Fights 13

Keith Jardine vs. Trevor Prangley

Houston Alexander vs. Ramean Sokodgou

Paul Daley vs. Jorge Masvidal

This is a very good 3 day run of non Zuffa MMA.

Please watch these shows. They all looked stacked and Bellator on FSN, MFC is on HDNET tomorrow night.

Tachi Palace Fights is available GoFightLive.tv. for 9.99.

These 5 fight cards show that there is MMA outside of the UFC and WEC.

3rd topic

What do you guys think of the Floyd Mayweather homophobic rant on Manny Pacquaio?? Can you consider what Floyd Mayweather said to what Muhammad Ali said at his peak vs. Smokin Joe Frazier? I just think boxing is one of the few sports where when you get to the status Mayweather has reached that you can say whatever you want and there really isn't much backlash. Would the NSAC or the CSAC not license him because of what he said? You better believe they would license in him a heart beat. Unfortunately,Mayweather is a big draw, I don't think he will miss a beat. I do think he should be reprimanded however there isn't a governing body with the stones to do it.

Happy Hunting

Daily Blog

I don't have a nifty or awesome title for today's blog, but what I do have are a few subjects that I think raise a few questions. I will try and keep it short as I value the time of my readers.

First is Todd Duffee getting released.

Wow. He was the future of the UFC as far as heavyweights, pure muscle, as Joe Rogan said, "I want whatever he's taking." I've heard different reports, MMAJunkie's exclusive interview with him after his release, "But on Tuesday, he became just the next fighter released by the UFC. Official reason? Duffee said his walking papers cite a May loss to Mike Russow in which Duffee dominated for two-and-a-half rounds before being clipped by a right hand that ended his night in shocking and upset fashion."
I'm not buying that. He got clipped halfway through the 3rd round of a fight that he was thoroughly dominating. Mike Russow, I believe had 5 consecutive wins coming into that fight.

There is also a report that it might have something to do with his petitioning on the Underground, for a weekend job. Also from MMAJunkie's interview. I don't know if that would have been enough to hand him walking papers.

My only thought is wow, what must have he done or said to piss off Dana White and the UFC for this to happen. We shall see in the upcoming weeks as the truth starts to unravel.

2nd Story, Shine Fights one night 8 man tournament.
I don't know how I feel about this. Should I, as a MMA fan support this company who is putting on a pretty cool one night tournament, or should I not considering the problems they had back in May and Virginia State Athletic Commission stated the reason why the event wouldn't be held there was due to the fact that Shine Fights did not secure a bond with them for the fighter's pay. This is the same problem they had in North Carolina back in May. I hope they figure there stuff out for the sake of the fighters who are appearing: Kid Chaos Charles Bennett, Carlos Prater, Shannon Gugerty, Drew Fickett, and Rich Crunkilton among others. I hope they are not going to put their hearts and souls on the lines and have to worry about whether they are getting paid.

Lastly, What is Bellator thinking have a card the same night as the opening game of the NFL season that is in the same town, New Orleans?

They should have picked any other southern city including say Dallas, Houston, Heck even Shreveport would not have been bad. This has the potential to be a logistics blunder of Biblical proportions. I hope for the sake of the fighters they get a good audience however, the defending super bowl champs having their game that night will have a significant effect on it. Not to mention there is no advertising on local radio in New Orleans about the event.

I will post some picks for tomorrow's Bellator on my brother site, http://bettingmma.blogspot.com




Happy Hunting.

TX DLR got it wrong

First off I didn't think I made it clear enough in my Blog about Heel Hooks, If the fighters want them around, then I have no problem with it. I am not going to tell them in their line of work what they should and shouldn't do/ Its not my job. I just want it researched a bit.

Moving on, today's short blog will be about the ironic parts of registration for both fighters and officials here in Texas. As many boxing fans know, Antonio Margarito recently got approved for a license here in the State of Texas to fight Manny Pacquiao in November. The application for him only cost 20 bucks. I have been wanting to officiate MMA here for a while. Would you like to know how much the application costs for a MMA referee?

250 bucks. I understand that you don't want everyone and their mom being MMA referees, but Antonio Margarito will make a fortune off of his fight and as a referee you get a little. Shouldn't the applications fees be reversed?

Banning of the Heel Hook

On the "heels" of UFC Fight Night 22, I think its time for the MMA community to take a strong look at the banning of this move. Rousimar Palhares, a man no stranger to heel hooks (6 Victories via), has showed in his last two fights just how brutal the long term effects of a heel hook are. A heel hook applied with full force for even just a second too long will rip and shred every ligament from the ankle to the knee. It is the only submission besides a cervical lock that is currently banned by the International Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Federation. I think it's at least time the MMA community researches whether this move can stay in our beloved sport or ban it for the safety of all fighters.


I understand that it is a fight that, and there is a certain amount of danger and risk, but I think that the costs outweigh the benefits of heel hooks. Fighters such as Rousimar Palhares almost depend upon them for wins and a heel hook when properly applied has long term physical effects, it can cause some fighters to never been able to fully walk again on that leg. I would really like to get the opinions of guys like Demian Maia, Renzo Gracie, Marc Laimon who know more about this than me. What I don't like about a heel hook is someone with no experience can learn that and potentially win fights based upon that. Heel hooks can't even be fully practiced because of the possibility of torquing it just a little too much. I will make it a goal to get a BJJ expert on here for their opinion.

I shall post this into the MMA Junkie, Sunday Junkie Contest to see if it wins.

What are ya'lls thoughts?

Bob Reilly's comments on Inside MMA

http://mmajunkie.com/news/20529/inside-mma-preview-new-yorks-bob-reilly-discusses-his-opposition-to-mma.mma#comments

I have no idea where to start with this Bob Reilly video from HDNET's Inside MMA. Frankly I believe he got dropped on his head when he was a baby, which was back when Madison Square Garden first opened in 1882. Get with the times sir. Saying and I quote, "I believe violence begets violence. In New York State, the legislature and the governor constantly are trying to do away with violence – violence in schools, violence in our urban cities, domestic violence. I think this just helps perpetuate and encourage violence."

Does Boxing perpetuate violence also? It is called Mixed Martial Arts, Martial Arts as in for defense, MMA has had a lot of benefits as far as getting more parents into sending their kids to learn some sort of self defense.


Bob Reilly goes on to say further, "There is a reason why in boxing, when a man or a woman is on his or her knees, that the opponent in boxing can not slam them on the head," Reilly said. "There's a purpose for that, and the reason is safety. When you combine the two, that's when you have the problem."

Yes there is a reason why they can't slam them on their head in Boxing, because they just had their block knocked off. Its funny how he doesn't mention how consistently boxers take punch after punch straight to the head 200-500 times per fight. Does his PR rep, well first off does he have a PR rep? Second if he does, do they actually go over what he will say before he says it???

I might reach out to him and interview him in order for him to expand upon what he said.



On a lighter note, did anyone check out that stunning knockout of Joe Soto by Joe Warren last night? My stupid Verizon FIOS will not show the replay until 7 pm Sunday night.

Learn the Game.

Training of Officials

I think all MMA officials need a certain amount of a martial arts background and especially some ground fighting training, so that they can better understand whats going on. Perfect example is Herb Dean, who is 2-3 as a fighter and that fighting background really helped in his calling of the Tim Slyvia vs. Frank Mir fight. He saw the arm break and was looking for it, and because of that he saved Tim's arm from being further damaged. That was impeccable officiating.

Bad example of officiating:
I hate to pick on Yves Lavigne but he has shown more than once the propensity of either stopping a fight to early or too late, its like he just can't get it right. I point to Mike Brown vs. Pete Sell at UFC 96, he looked like he stopped it then he pulled back the trigger, and let the fight continue unnecessarily. Recently at UFC 118 he should have waved off the fight the Marcus Davis- Nate Diaz fight much sooner when that choke was deeply sunk in.

I as a fight fan would rather have a fight stopped early, than stopped too late and have a fighter take an unnecessary amount of damage.

Just saying.

Learn the Game.