On Wednesday night’s airing of UFC Tonight, UFC president Dana White was asked by hosts Kenny Florian and Chael Sonnen to play a little word association. After names like Weidman, Silva and Jones, White landed on ‘Rampage.’
Rampage Jackson wanted to leave the UFC. We let him leave the UFC. We did a lot of things for that guy – a lot of things – personal and professional. Now he just goes out and cries about everything. The world is against Rampage Jackson. He’s supposed to be one of the toughest guys in the world, and all he does is cry about everything.
Jackson responded shortly thereafter via Twitter:
@danawhite if I was u I would keep my name out of your mouth. If people ask u a question about me n a interview it’s best 2 say no comment
— Quinton Jackson (@Rampage4real) September 12, 2013
Oddly enough, White’s comments on Jackson seemed to have been trimmed from clips of the segment. On the other hand, White’s thoughts on former light heavyweight champion Tito Ortiz remain. “Tito Ortiz. He’s an idiot. He’s a moron. He’s a dope. He’s a fool. He’s a buffoon.” We’ll have to wait to see if Dana takes the bait.
6 MUST-READ STORIES
Edgar vs. Penn 3. In addition to being named the coaches for season 19 of The Ultimate Fighter, Frankie Edgar and B.J. Penn will fight for a third time, but at featherweight.
UFC on Fox 9 takes shape. With Anthony Pettis likely to make the first defense of his lightweight title to T.J. Grant and Urijah Faber co-headlining against Michael McDonald, UFC on Fox 9 is looking Pay-Per-View worthy.
Trouble with testing. Peek behind the curtain as SB Nation uncovers the emails detailing the drug testing rift between Georges St-Pierre and Johny Hendricks.
Mayweather vs. Canelo buzz. Luke Thomas chats with Showtime’s Executive Vice President and General Manager Stephen Espinoza.
Survivor. A victim of both psychological and physical abuse, Invicta FC strawweight Bec Hyatt opens up about her ordeal leaving the father of her child. “He would kick me, pin me down and elbow me, grind his elbow down my face and choke me unconscious.”
Dana responds to Riddle. Following Matt Riddle’s MMA retirement, Dana White takes him to task for claiming he was unable to pay his bills.
Grice. Please make sure to check out the Matt Grice Donation Fund if you haven’t already.
MEDIA STEW
Broner not a fan of MMA.
The Jones brothers sit down to create their own NIKEiD’s.
Dominick Cruz talks 2014 return and advice from Floyd Mayweather Jr.
Cool mini doc featuring former TUF hopeful Colleen Schneider and her coach, Josh Barnett.
I have no idea … but Mark Hunt and Superman.
Who would have believed a sweetheart like Floyd Mayweather would be persnickety about his coffee.
Tommy Toe Hold answers your questions.
Old School MMA Review: UFC 7 – The Brawl in Buffalo.
TWEETS
Fighters remember 9/11.
Never Forget! pic.twitter.com/HZyBlXDcVx
— Chris Weidman (@ChrisWeidmanUFC) September 11, 2013
Let us never forget.
— LIZ CARMOUCHE (@iamgirlrilla) September 11, 2013
Everytime I drive up to edge_wrestling and drive past here I can’t help but think about 9/11. Today… http://t.co/mhfE7y15cV
— Frankie Edgar (@FrankieEdgar) September 12, 2013
TUF reactions. Some nicer than others.
My prayers tonight “Dear lord please forgive me for I was happy when my teammate/friend won her fight, somehow that offended @RondaRousey “
— Miesha Tate (@MieshaTate) September 12, 2013
@RondaRousey “she’s FU**in scared of you” stfu Ronda @VenezuelanVixen isn’t scared of anybody including you #TooCocky
— Miesha Tate (@MieshaTate) September 12, 2013
I’m in disbelief. #TUF
— Kaitlin Young (@kaitlin_young) September 12, 2013
Congrats @VenezuelanVixen. That was awesome!! #TeamTate #TUF18 #TUFonFs1
— Chris Holdsworth (@holdsworth135) September 12, 2013
Big upset for the first episode, most people had shayna winning it. Hottub=6girls+me awesome hahaha
— josh hill (@gentlemanjhill) September 12, 2013
Ronda cries cuz she cares-not everyone is good at bein fake n phony like she’s in a beauty pageant 24/7 — ahem
— Michelle Ould (@MichelleOuldMMA) September 12, 2013
Always Stay Humble….
— Nick Newell (@NotoriousNewell) September 12, 2013
Here’s me. talking about Juliana getting her 1/100 at the right time http://t.co/YOkB4k947f
— Shayna Baszler (@QoSBaszler) September 12, 2013
I don’t understand the @RondaRousey hate after this episode. It actually made me like her more. #TUF @ufc
— Kaitlin Young (@kaitlin_young) September 12, 2013
Congrats to @VenezuelanVixen! @QoSBaszler is a legend. In MMA anything can happen. I <3 this sport! @ufc @FOXSports1
— LIZ CARMOUCHE (@iamgirlrilla) September 12, 2013
@DerekBrunsonMMA I wish @QoSBaszler had won more than I wish I was in the house.
— Tara LaRosa (@TaraLaRosa) September 12, 2013
Broner says sorry. Good thing.
I just want to say I apologize to all mma fighters that felt disrespected cause y’all do work hard and it take a lot to do what y’all do
— Adrien Broner (@AdrienBroner) September 11, 2013
Thank God @AdrienBroner apologized to MMA fighters. I thought I was gonna have to choke him out. #mma #ufc #boxing #bandcamp #fb
— Din Thomas (@DinThomas) September 11, 2013
#Fact I would be a World Champion in Boxing before you were a World Champion in MMA @AdrienBroner #RealTalk
— Cub Swanson (@CubSwanson) September 12, 2013
Eat up.
Glad I’m not having to cut any weight. Can’t believe the size of this sandwich at Mo’s. pic.twitter.com/hhRUi0Jxy0
— Dan Henderson (@danhendo) September 11, 2013
Yum delicious elephant ear #puyallupfair http://t.co/F88SUEveOq
— Demetrious Johnson (@MightyMouseUFC) September 11, 2013
So many horse meat jokes.
What to do with food tonight..? Suggestions anyone..?
— Alistair Overeem (@Alistairovereem) September 11, 2013
Someone frame this picture for Luke.
Lifted today with @marcusbuchecha him trainin with aka is not good for the jiu jitsu world. He will… http://t.co/zgSdAiVhn6
— Daniel Cormier (@dc_mma) September 12, 2013
It’s not a doll.
Hmmmm “@round5: Could this be the @MieshaTate collectible or someone else? *evil grin* pic.twitter.com/eEvRvg0hbM“
— Miesha Tate (@MieshaTate) September 11, 2013
Numbers do lie?
Anybody else feel like all scales are big fat heavy liars… 1 month to make weight #igotthis #dietdedicationdisipline
— Diego Sanchez UFC (@DiegoSanchezUFC) September 11, 2013
That looks really broken.
Partindo para cirurgia, @ufc_brasil @ufc @WallidJfc @canalCombate @IvanRaupp @seanshelby @BIOPOWERBRASIL hoje 12h pic.twitter.com/BnCW9mdv3u
— Edimilson Souza (@kevinsouzamma) September 11, 2013
Heavy metal.
Throwback of me & my homie John after my 1st AR-15 build pic.twitter.com/IYxC6CPIJ3
— Shayna Baszler (@QoSBaszler) September 11, 2013
… and don’t ever call her ‘bro.’
@SaintMMA bro?
— Shayna Baszler (@QoSBaszler) September 11, 2013
FIGHT ANNOUNCEMENTS
Announced yesterday (Sept. 11 2013)
Mauricio Rua vs. James Te Huna at UFC Fight Night 33
Anthony Pettis vs. T.J. Grant at UFC on Fox 9
Urijah Faber vs. Michael McDonald at UFC on Fox 9
FANPOST OF THE DAY
Today’s Fanpost of the Day comes via MMA Fighting member Steve Borchardt.
On marijuana, TRT, and the ticklish nature of rules
Rules can be frustratingly arbitrary things.
Sometimes all that makes the difference between a given behavior having disastrous consequences or being regarded as perfectly innocent is the flick of some bureaucrats’ pen.
Take for instance the Nevada State Athletic Commission’s recent decision to raise the acceptable threshold for a marijuana drug test failure. Up until last week a marijuana metabolite level of 50 ng/mL was enough to land a fighter with a penchant for hot boxing in some serious hot water with the commission. Now the NSAC has raised the acceptable limit to 150 ng/mL, which puts Nevada in step with both the World Anti Doping Agency and the UFC’s recently-adopted policy on marijuana. With the NSAC being something of the vanguard in athletic commission testing, it wouldn’t be surprising to see commissions in other states soon follow their lead.
This is great news if you’re a fighter for whom hits from the bong are as much a part of your daily routine as hitting a heavy bag. Under the new rules you can now consume enough THC to recreate Cheech and Chong’s van made entirely out of weed as long as you go straight a little over a week before your fight.
One imagines a thick cloud of smoke rising over the 209, as the mayor of Stockton declares a city wide holiday to be heretofore known as “Diaz Day” in celebration of the NSAC’s ruling.
And while this news is doubtlessly more welcome to a dope smoking fighter than a bag full of Doritos-flavored tacos delivered while he’s in the throes of the munchies, it must bring mixed emotions for guys like Pat Healy and Matt Riddle.
A few puffs of a joint at a friend’s birthday party a few weeks before UFC 159 ended up costing Pat Healy $135,000 in bonus money, not to mention erasing the signature win of his career over perennial top-ten lightweight Jim Miller. If the fight had taken place just half a year later and in the state of Nevada rather than New Jersey, Healy’s bank statement would likely have a few more zeros at the end of it than it ldoes now.
Then there’s the case of Matt Riddle. The former UFC welterweight was let go by the company following his second post-fight test failure for marijuana following the UFC on FUEL: Barao vs. McDonald card back in February. After the firing Riddle, a medical marijuana patient who claims the drug helps him cope with serious anxiety issues, expressed optimism for his post Zuffa career, likening his free agent status to a “fresh breath of air.”
Turns out the air outside the UFC is about as fresh as that inside a stoner’s bedroom after he finishes ripping a tube. Yesterday Riddle announced his retirement following a rib injury suffered in training for an upcoming bout with Bellator, citing financial hardship due to the company’s apparent inability to line him up with a fight before their next welterweight tournament. Needless to say Riddle’s life would likely be drastically different today had his second test failure come under the new guidelines.
Although it’s too late to help fighters like Healy and Riddle, the NSAC should be applauded for reevaluating a rule that didn’t serve any purpose other than to penalize an innocuous recreational behavior. After all, it’s not like THC helps fighters make drastic physical gains during training camp.
However, there is a drug that athletic commissions and the UFC alike both accept that does give fighters who use it a distinct physical advantage: synthetic testosterone.
Every time we turn around it seems another fighter has been added to the ranks of testosterone replacement therapy recipients. It’s awfully curious how so many ostensibly healthy, high level athletes’ bodies have suddenly stopped producing a sufficient amount of testosterone over the past couple years.
What’s even fishier is that low testosterone is supposedly a lifelong condition, yet we’ve seen fighters who once were on TRT eventually quit using the treatment but continue fighting. One would think the rigors of a training camp, let alone a fight itself, would be an all but impossible feat for these men to pull off if indeed they possessed such dangerously low natural levels of testosterone that medical intervention was necessary.
Which is why it’s so disheartening to see athletic commissions and the UFC still handing out therapeutic use exemptions like they were Halloween candy. There are number of troubling questions posed by the continued acceptance of TRT in MMA that don’t look to be going away anytime soon.
First, does it make sense for athletic commissions and the UFC alike to allow fighters to take a performance enhancing drug, even if those who use it have testosterone levels “within acceptable limits?” Given that these limits are still on the high end of what a normal man would naturally produce, even with regular tests isn’t there still plenty of leeway for a clever fighter who wants to use TRT to game the system?
Some athletes may have a legitimate need for synthetic testosterone, but if someone’s body has undergone such significant damage it can no longer produce testosterone — whether it be from weight cutting, blows to the head, or past anabolic steroid abuse — should they really be allowed to keep fighting and thereby potentially exacerbate their underlying problem?
Perhaps most importantly, is it fair for a clean fighter to be expected to put his health and livelihood at greater risk by facing an opponent who has been granted permission to shoot up with synthetic hormones?
Like I said, rules can be frustratingly arbitrary things.
Found something you’d like to see in the Morning Report? Just hit me up on Twitter @SaintMMA and we’ll include it in tomorrow’s column.