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Can John Lineker Kelvin Gastelum Be Contenders at Their New Weight Classes?

Selecting a weight class is a big deal in mixed martial arts. Most athletes want to cut down to the smallest size possible, while retaining the physical abilities that will allow them to excel over their opponent. However, some struggle with maintainin…

Selecting a weight class is a big deal in mixed martial arts. Most athletes want to cut down to the smallest size possible, while retaining the physical abilities that will allow them to excel over their opponent. However, some struggle with maintaining that competitive weight. John Lineker and Kelvin Gastelum are two men who face the challenge of competing in new divisions due to issues with weight cuts.

Lineker and Gastelum were poised for big fights at UFC 183. Lineker was supposed to face off against Ian McCall in a bout that could have positioned him to challenge Demetrious Johnson for the UFC flyweight title. Gastelum, on the other hand, was going to battle Tyron Woodley, who was the highest ranked opponent that he was slated to face at that point in his career.

Unfortunately, both men were unable to reach their mandated competition weight. Lineker weighed in at 130 pounds while Gastelum hit the scale at 180 pounds (via Sherdog). Both were forced to forfeit 30 percent of their purse to their opponent as penalty.

Yet, the more important punishment was revealed by UFC President Dana White, when he made it known that both men will have to move to different weight classes.

“Lineker will never fight at flyweight again. He will have to move up to bantamweight,” White said after UFC 183 (via Combate). “Same thing with Kelvin Gastelum. This was the last time he will fight at welterweight.”

The question now is whether or not both men can stay competitive when facing bigger athletes. More often than not, the story is that fighters will look to drop a weight class in order to reinvent their careers when facing a tough skid in another division. Frankie Edgar is a recent and popular example of someone who has moved down a group and attained success.

Of course, that doesn’t mean that these two won’t be successful as they venture into new divisions.

Anthony Johnson is perhaps the most relevant example of a fighter who has saved his career by avoiding weight cuts. The No. 1 ranked light heavyweight is poised to face Jon Jones at some point in 2015 for a shot at the belt just three years after being cut from the UFC for repeated weight issues.

During Johnson’s first run in the Octagon, he failed to make the 170-pound limit on multiple occasions. After failing to make weight for UFC 142, he was released from the UFC, as that was his third strike (via MMA Junkie).

Instead of continuing to struggle as a welterweight, he went in the opposite direction, competing as a light heavyweight and heavyweight in other promotions. After winning multiple fights in a row, he was welcomed back to the UFC and now finds himself in a position to battle for a title.

Gastelum and Lineker should use Johnson as motivation for this next phase of their careers. Competing at a higher weight class is not ideal, but both men have shown that their struggles to make weight are a serious concern. Continuing their success against larger opponents is not a long shot, but they are both in for a true challenge.

Read more MMA news on BleacherReport.com

Benson Henderson Is Great but Must Recognize What Really Moves the UFC Needle

If UFC lightweight contender Benson Henderson were to be cast in a movie, Smooth would undoubtedly star in a suspense film. And like any good suspense film, Henderson likes taking his time. 
The former lightweight champion, who’s notorious fo…

If UFC lightweight contender Benson Henderson were to be cast in a movie, Smooth would undoubtedly star in a suspense film. And like any good suspense film, Henderson likes taking his time. 

The former lightweight champion, who’s notorious for piling up close-decision wins, was burned by the judges in his uneventful trilogy fight with Donald Cerrone at UFC Fight Night: Boston. It marked just the second time Henderson lost via decision in his mixed martial arts career.

Though he wasn’t particularly sour in his post-fight interview, the fighter from the MMA Lab had every right to be. Henderson acted as the aggressor for much of the pair’s co-main event spot, winning the striking battle by a wide margin. 

Henderson’s game plan of targeting the legs and body of the prolific kickboxer was a key throughout his 15-minute tussle with Cerrone. Not to mention, Henderson stuffed six “Cowboy” takedowns.

Cerrone, though, would ultimately prevail off the strength of his two takedowns and, perhaps, his soaring popularity. 

The loss stings just a bit more than normal because it’s the first time Smooth has lost back-to-back fights in his career. Rather than anguishing on the sideline, he’s choosing to stay busy, like his pal Cowboy. 

Bendo will be foregoing an April fight with Jorge Masvidal to headline an injury-plagued UFC Fight Night 60 card in his home state of Colorado against Brandon Thatch. 

With a change in opponent also comes a change in weight class. The 31-year-old Henderson will move up to 170-pounds to meet the “Rukus.”

No one can blame him for dusting his boots off to get back on the proverbial MMA grind. Henderson is a large lightweight and has spoken candidly about a move up. 

In March 2013, when Bendo was still champ, he unceremoniously called out the greatest UFC welterweight in history, Georges St-Pierre. 

Like St-Pierre, Henderson has been branded as a fighter that’s not all that compelling in the cage. 

“In the UFC, they want fights to be exciting. They want knockouts, they want submissions,” Henderson told Yahoo Sports’ Kevin Iole in December 2012. “But at the same time, you have to be smart about it. You have to get your hand raised and get the W.”

Smooth has a lot of ‘Ws’. He has tallied nine Octagon wins, compared to three losses. If you take his wins in World Extreme Cagefighting into account, that number rises to 14.

For a four-year period, from January 2009 to August 2013, the Colorado native was only stopped by current lightweight champion Anthony Pettis. He also defeated some noteworthy lightweight champions, Frankie Edgar (twice) and Gilbert Melendez (Strikeforce), in that span. 

Those wins came at the peak of Bendo‘s career. They also happened to be the most controversial. 

The Melendez and Edgar fights were as close on the scorecards as they appeared on television. Several MMA outlets scored Henderson’s second fight with Edgar at UFC 150 in favor of the latter. 

But Henderson hasn’t only been a target for MMA pundits; his boss has also been his biggest critic. Following his back-and-forth split-decision victory over Josh Thomson in January 2014, UFC president Dana White remarked, per Steven Marrocco of MMAJunkie, that “this is the typical Ben Henderson fight.”

Even then, Henderson didn’t complain. Over time, though, his guard eroded. 

His title loss against Pettis, and the shots thrown by White, resulted in this tirade following Bendo‘s first UFC finish against Rustam Khabilov in June. 

“Getting the ‘W’ is the same as all the other ‘Ws,’” said Henderson at the UFC Fight Night 42 post-fight presser. “I’m just after good performances, whether it’s a submission or its a knockout, sometimes you guys in the media don’t understand what it is to win.”

Henderson is right. To see a fight through the eyes of the fighter taking the blows in the cage is something entirely different.

However, if he wants to earn some respect, Smooth should rip a page out of the book of humility. Since relinquishing his title to Pettis, Henderson has gone on to achieve a 2-2 record. 

The most devastating loss of his career came at the hands of current No. 1 contender Rafael dos Anjos. Rather than take the high road, Bendo threw dirt on the Brazilians’ first-round knockout victory, calling it “a flash knockout.”

While the end result of the fight may have been controversial, he could’ve at least recognized his opponent’s power. Maybe even tip his cap to the better man.

After all it’s Henderson that has been given the benefit of the doubt several times before. And whether he wins or loses, controversy still manages to rear its ugly head every time he steps into the Octagon. 

Henderson has a job to do. He does it quite well and is one of the most successful in the division at his craft. 

And admittedly, as Bleacher Report’s Chad Dundas pointed out, “there are worse roles to have in the UFC’s most crowded and competitive division.”

Though, he hasn’t done much to change his stock in it. He didn’t try to lay a whipping on the Cowboy.

Perhaps, his breakthrough showing hasn’t come yet because of just how stiff his competition was. Edgar, Melendez, Thomson and Cerrone have all been finished a combined four times in their careers.

The welterweight division isn’t going to be a cakewalk either for Henderson and it begins February 14. However, we just might have to wait for the bout verse Thatch to play out to gauge Smooth’s interest in staying at 170 pounds.

“I would say it’s just a pit-stop for right now. I wouldn’t say that I’m going to stay at 170, just more or less flirting with the idea and seeing how it goes from here,” Henderson told Ariel Helwani on The MMA Hour.

Whether or not Henderson will compete for another title remains to be seen. It’s possible his time has already come.

If he stays complacent in his fight strategy, though, it’s going to be rough sledding for the former UFC/WEC champion.

Read more MMA news on BleacherReport.com

Sarah Kaufman Fights Alexis Davis at UFC 186 in Next UFC Trilogy

Canadian fight fans will have to settle for the return of two of the most exciting women in the 135-pound division, not former UFC welterweight champion Georges St-Pierre.
UFC bantamweight competitor Sarah Kaufman has finally found herself an Octagon o…

Canadian fight fans will have to settle for the return of two of the most exciting women in the 135-pound division, not former UFC welterweight champion Georges St-Pierre.

UFC bantamweight competitor Sarah Kaufman has finally found herself an Octagon opponent. The 29-year-old former Strikeforce women’s bantamweight champion will face off with former title challenger Alexis Davis for the third time at UFC 186.

MMAJunkie.com first reported the news. Kaufman also made the announcement on her Twitter account.

The No. 5-ranked Kaufman has been on the shelf for the past nine months due to injuries sustained in a car accident and has been campaigning tirelessly on social media for a return fight.

Well, the UFC obliged by pitting her against the No. 3-ranked Davis in the promotion’s latest trilogy fight.

Davis and Kaufman have met twice before; once in Strikeforce and another time on the Canadian mixed martial arts circuit. Kaufman bested her fellow Canadian on both occasions, earning TKO and majority decision victories. 

Kaufman, a native of Victoria, British Columbia, sports a 1-0 Octagon record with one no-contest. She last fought former Invicta FC flyweight title challenger Leslie Smith in April, defeating her for the second time via unanimous decision.

Her lone no-contest was originally a split-decision loss to former Bellator fighter Jessica Eye in her Octagon debut. It was a decision that several MMA media outlets scored for Kaufman. 

Meanwhile, Davis hasn’t fought since her 16-second beatdown at the hands of undefeated bantamweight champion “Rowdy” Ronda Rousey at UFC 175 in July. The 30-year-old was previously riding a five-fight win streak, notching victories over top-10 opponents Eye and Liz Carmouche.

Kaufman, a Jackson/Winkeljohn MMA product, bloodied Davis in a 15-minute striking battle under the Strikeforce banner in March 2012. For three rounds the Columbus, Ohio audience was treated to a thrilling back-and-forth bloodbath in which Kaufman squeaked out a majority decision win. 

The win earned her a shot at the bantamweight queen Rousey in August 2012. Kaufman would end up falling victim to the arm collector within the first minute of their tussle.

In the initial meeting between the two Canadian fighters, which took place in April 2007, Kaufman put away Davis via third-round TKO.

The pair’s next fight promises to be filled with as many knees, elbows and haymakers as their prior two bouts were. 

We’d be remiss if we failed to acknowledge the growth that Kaufman and Davis have shown in the three years since they last fought. 

Kaufman’s striking has looked better each time she has set foot in the Octagon. In fact, her former opponent Smith probably still feels the stinging of the crisp boxing on her face. Kaufman recorded over 200 significant strikes against Smith in their April encounter. 

The Canadian battered Smith for 15 minutes and nearly finished Eye in their UFC 166 war.

Davis looked equally impressive against Eye and the former 135-pound title challenger Carmouche. The San Jose-based fighter picked apart Carmouche with leg kicks in their November 2013 fight, and utilized ground and pound to eek out a close decision over Eye at UFC 170. 

Both Davis and Kaufman need a victory to keep pace with former title challenger Miesha Tate, who has compiled three straight victories in the last 12 months.

The 28-year-old Tate has been one of the more busy women in the bantamweight division, most recently earning a hard-fought win over former Olympic wrestler Sara McMann at UFC 183. Her only professional losses have come against those at the top of the 135-pound food chain, including bouts with the champion Rousey and current No. 1 contender Cat Zingano.

Kaufman has taken to Twitter in the new year in hopes of securing bouts with burgeoning Brazilian star Bethe Correia and Tate, who she holds a May 2009 victory over. 

UFC 186 will take place April 25 at the Bell Centre in Montreal, Quebec, Canada and is headlined by a bantamweight title rematch between T.J. Dillashaw and Renan Barao. 

Read more MMA news on BleacherReport.com

Eddie Alvarez on Gilbert Melendez: ‘I beat this guy every time out’

Gilbert Melendez said he doesn’t have any animosity toward Eddie Alvarez. Well, Alvarez might not exactly share that sentiment.

Alvarez told Ariel Helwani on Monday’s edition of The MMA Hour that he feels like Melendez is like “the high school cheerleader always trying to s*ck off the quarterback.” The two former champions have feuded on social media and in the press for years. Both have agreed that now is the time to make the fight finally happen.

“If he’s not making headlines, he’ll say he wants to fight the guy who is,” Alvarez said. “He always would talk about me. I just lost, but when I was on a streak and doing well, whenever I would do well, right away, well Gilbert wants to fight me. I didn’t do so well? ‘Oh, I think he lost a step. I don’t want to fight him right now.’ I don’t know. I don’t know about this guy.”

Melendez was on The MMA Hour last week and, while he wasn’t as critical of Alvarez, he reiterated that he wants the fight.

“I don’t really care much about him, but I do respect him as a fighter,” Melendez said. “I’d like to share the Octagon with him finally.”

The rivalry goes back years to when Melendez was the Strikeforce lightweight champion and Alvarez held the lightweight title in Bellator. Then-Bellator president Bjorn Rebney wanted to co-promote with Strikeforce and put together a Melendez-Alvarez champion vs. champion bout. Alvarez even called into The MMA Hour when then-Strikeforce president Scott Coker was on to campaign for the fight.

It never came together. But, as Alvarez pointed out, now is the perfect time. Both are in the UFC, coming off losses and are remain two of the best 155-pound fighters in MMA. Alvarez even said he would forego a title shot just to get Melendez in the Octagon and thought about staying in Bellator when he heard Melendez might sign with the promotion.

“I beat this guy every time out,” Alvarez said. “With everything in me. I don’t know how he feels about his fight skills, but the things that he’s good at — his style — I’m better at. I hit harder, I’m stronger, I feel like I’m faster. I just really want to hit this guy. I’m excited about it.”

Melendez proposed the bout go down in Mexico, where the UFC is likely to hold an event in June. Alvarez doesn’t want to wait that long. He had to pull out of a fight with Benson Henderson last month due to family issues. Alvarez’s newborn daughter had complications at birth and his family is in the process of moving back to their hometown Philadelphia for treatment. Alvarez will continue to do his training camps with the Blackzilians in Boca Raton, Fla.

“I just kind of got my head wrapped around I was gonna make this work, do what I had to do with making this work, dealing with what my family and my newborn was going through,” Alvarez said. “It just came to the point where the fight was not as important as what was going on in my life. I tried to do it and I thought I could do it, but it just bubbled up to the point where it just took priority.”

Alvarez (25-4) would like to get back in the cage by April or May. He’s down in Florida training right now, getting ready as if he had a fight booked. The 31-year-old doesn’t want to let another opportunity to fight Melendez go by.

“I just think it’s been too long,” he said. “It’s been too long, it’s been too controversial and I don’t know what this guy is gonna do. He was trying to go to Bellator.”

Melendez did sign with Bellator last year, but the UFC matched the contract and Melendez returned. Alvarez landed in the UFC after four years with Bellator back in September. He fell to Donald Cerrone at UFC 178 in his UFC debut, while Melendez was defeated by champion Anthony Pettis at UFC 181 on Dec. 6.

Putting the two of them together now seems like a no-brainer. The only thing that needs to get decided is timing.

“I hope so,” Alvarez said. “I don’t think [any contract] was made for it, but I think it’s just him saying he wants to fight me. I agree, so there’s nothing for me to sign. My word is as good as gold. I’m good with the fight.”

Gilbert Melendez said he doesn’t have any animosity toward Eddie Alvarez. Well, Alvarez might not exactly share that sentiment.

Alvarez told Ariel Helwani on Monday’s edition of The MMA Hour that he feels like Melendez is like “the high school cheerleader always trying to s*ck off the quarterback.” The two former champions have feuded on social media and in the press for years. Both have agreed that now is the time to make the fight finally happen.

“If he’s not making headlines, he’ll say he wants to fight the guy who is,” Alvarez said. “He always would talk about me. I just lost, but when I was on a streak and doing well, whenever I would do well, right away, well Gilbert wants to fight me. I didn’t do so well? ‘Oh, I think he lost a step. I don’t want to fight him right now.’ I don’t know. I don’t know about this guy.”

Melendez was on The MMA Hour last week and, while he wasn’t as critical of Alvarez, he reiterated that he wants the fight.

“I don’t really care much about him, but I do respect him as a fighter,” Melendez said. “I’d like to share the Octagon with him finally.”

The rivalry goes back years to when Melendez was the Strikeforce lightweight champion and Alvarez held the lightweight title in Bellator. Then-Bellator president Bjorn Rebney wanted to co-promote with Strikeforce and put together a Melendez-Alvarez champion vs. champion bout. Alvarez even called into The MMA Hour when then-Strikeforce president Scott Coker was on to campaign for the fight.

It never came together. But, as Alvarez pointed out, now is the perfect time. Both are in the UFC, coming off losses and are remain two of the best 155-pound fighters in MMA. Alvarez even said he would forego a title shot just to get Melendez in the Octagon and thought about staying in Bellator when he heard Melendez might sign with the promotion.

“I beat this guy every time out,” Alvarez said. “With everything in me. I don’t know how he feels about his fight skills, but the things that he’s good at — his style — I’m better at. I hit harder, I’m stronger, I feel like I’m faster. I just really want to hit this guy. I’m excited about it.”

Melendez proposed the bout go down in Mexico, where the UFC is likely to hold an event in June. Alvarez doesn’t want to wait that long. He had to pull out of a fight with Benson Henderson last month due to family issues. Alvarez’s newborn daughter had complications at birth and his family is in the process of moving back to their hometown Philadelphia for treatment. Alvarez will continue to do his training camps with the Blackzilians in Boca Raton, Fla.

“I just kind of got my head wrapped around I was gonna make this work, do what I had to do with making this work, dealing with what my family and my newborn was going through,” Alvarez said. “It just came to the point where the fight was not as important as what was going on in my life. I tried to do it and I thought I could do it, but it just bubbled up to the point where it just took priority.”

Alvarez (25-4) would like to get back in the cage by April or May. He’s down in Florida training right now, getting ready as if he had a fight booked. The 31-year-old doesn’t want to let another opportunity to fight Melendez go by.

“I just think it’s been too long,” he said. “It’s been too long, it’s been too controversial and I don’t know what this guy is gonna do. He was trying to go to Bellator.”

Melendez did sign with Bellator last year, but the UFC matched the contract and Melendez returned. Alvarez landed in the UFC after four years with Bellator back in September. He fell to Donald Cerrone at UFC 178 in his UFC debut, while Melendez was defeated by champion Anthony Pettis at UFC 181 on Dec. 6.

Putting the two of them together now seems like a no-brainer. The only thing that needs to get decided is timing.

“I hope so,” Alvarez said. “I don’t think [any contract] was made for it, but I think it’s just him saying he wants to fight me. I agree, so there’s nothing for me to sign. My word is as good as gold. I’m good with the fight.”

Sarah Kaufman vs. Alexis Davis trilogy bout added to UFC 186

UFC 186 lost one Canadian, but it’ll be getting two more.
Alexis Davis and Sarah Kaufman, two of the country’s most well-known women’s MMA fighters, will clash for the third time at UFC 186 on April 25 in Montreal, the UFC announced Tuesday….

UFC 186 lost one Canadian, but it’ll be getting two more.

Alexis Davis and Sarah Kaufman, two of the country’s most well-known women’s MMA fighters, will clash for the third time at UFC 186 on April 25 in Montreal, the UFC announced Tuesday. Rory MacDonald, another Canadian, was pulled from the card Tuesday after it was found out that his opponent Hector Lombard failed a drug test for anabolic steroids.

Kaufman (17-2, 1 NC) has beaten Davis twice in her career. The last time came via majority decision at Strikeforce: Tate vs. Rousey in March 2012. The first was Davis’ MMA debut in 2007.

Kaufman, a 29-year-old Victoria, British Columbia native, has just one loss since then, to UFC women’s bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey. Kaufman has not fought since beating Leslie Smith last April. Overall, she has five wins in her last seven fights and remains one of the best 135-pound women in the world.

Davis (16-6) fell to Rousey by TKO in just 16 seconds at UFC 175 last July. Before that, she had won five in a row, including three in the UFC. The 30-year-old Port Colborne, Ontario native’s last loss before the Rousey bout was against Kaufman. Davis, a Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt, is still ranked No. 3 among UFC women’s bantamweight contenders, two spots ahead of Kaufman.

Kaufman had recently called out Miesha Tate, but Tate probably wouldn’t be ready due to a broken orbital she obtained in a UFC 183 win over Sara McMann on Jan. 31.

UFC 186 will be headlined by a bantamweight title fight between champion T.J. Dillashaw and former champ Renan Barao. The co-main event, just added Tuesday, will pit flyweight champion Demetrious Johnson against Kyoji Horiguchi. The event marks the UFC’s first trip back to Montreal’s Bell Centre since March 2013.

Tim Kennedy on MMA’s drug problem: ‘It’s going to get worse before it gets better’

UFC 183 was supposed to be an historic night for the organization in a good way. Two stars of the sport, Anderson Silva and Nick Diaz, were making their returns after long layoffs. Silva, the greatest UFC champion, was attempting to come bac…

UFC 183 was supposed to be an historic night for the organization in a good way. Two stars of the sport, Anderson Silva and Nick Diaz, were making their returns after long layoffs. Silva, the greatest UFC champion, was attempting to come back from a gruesome broken leg.

Three days later, UFC 183 made history alright — for all the wrong reasons. News broke that Silva had failed an out-of-competition drug test for anabolic steroid metabolites nearly a month before the bout. And Diaz popped for marijuana metabolites in a post-fight drug screening.

These failed drug tests come less than a month after we learned UFC light heavyweight Jon Jones failed a pre-fight drug test for cocaine metabolites. And Tuesday, UFC middleweight contender Hector Lombard was pulled from the UFC 186 co-main event for testing positive in a post-fight drug test for an anabolic steroid at UFC 182.

As far as Tim Kennedy is concerned, this is just the tip of the iceberg.

“There’s a crazy problem,” Kennedy told Ariel Helwani on Monday’s edition of The MMA Hour. “The inevitable is gonna happen and where somebody is going to get seriously hurt and the person that caused that is gonna test positive and then the sport is … “

Kennedy, a longtime anti-drug advocate in MMA, didn’t have to finish his thought. We all get where he was going — to a scary place. One Kennedy thinks is inevitable at this point.


“I’m talking about like something horrible, maybe even something gone wrong where a bad drug is used and something happens to the athlete before the fight and now his kidneys are failing and his liver is failing,” Kennedy said. “Guess what? That’s what happens when you use steroids. So yeah, it’s going to get worse before it gets better.”

Kennedy, 35, said he has been approached by someone offering him performance-enhancing drugs almost on a monthly basis during his 13-year MMA career. He said two such people he considered friends and now no longer associates with them. Kennedy, a special forces officer in the U.S. Army, said he didn’t even take PEDs when he was overseas, where guys use “just to stay alive, to not get blown up.”

“Even over there, it’s been tempting,” Kennedy said. “As God as my witness, never have I ever used or even thought about using. It’s been tempting, I can’t lie.”

The Austin, Texas resident seems to be in the minority. Kennedy said “60 to 70 percent” of MMA fighters are using performance-enhancing drugs. And he believes that unless the UFC stars cracking down with year-round, random drug-testing, as the promotion spoke about doing last year, the problem will not stop. UFC president Dana White has since said the organization will not institute such a program. Kennedy refers to quotes about PEDs from White and UFC CEO Lorenzo Fertitta “lip service.”

“I think that number is going to continue to go up unless the UFC changes things,” Kennedy said. “But myself, Lyoto Machida, the old-school guys that still care about martial arts, we’re going away. That generation is leaving and the younger athlete is coming in and that athlete is one abusing dude.”

Kennedy is also convinced that something fishy is going on with the Nevada Athletic Commission (NAC). Silva’s test occurred on Jan. 9 and the results didn’t come back to the commission until three days after the fight. Had it returned before the bout, Silva would have been pulled for failing the screening. When asked by Helwani if he thought the NAC was corrupt, Kennedy responded, “absolutely,” because the commission stands to lose a ton of money if a big-drawing fight does not go on as planned.

“Now they’re just insulting us,” Kennedy said.

Kennedy is in the middle of a sabbatical from fighting following his loss to Yoel Romero at UFC 178 in September. Like friend and FOX analyst Brian Stann, he said he is willing to be a public advocate for cleaning up the sport he loves. Because, from here, Kennedy only thinks something very, very bad is going to happen and change MMA forever. And not in a good way.

“I’m honestly surprised it hasn’t happened yet,” Kennedy said. “If you look at the number of athletes using and some of the fantastic finishes. It doesn’t even have to be a horrible injury. It can just be a knockout and the guy comes in and tests positive. That in itself. That guy just got a serious amount of damage done to his brain done by a dude who is using steroids. We’re not putting balls in holes. We’re not playing golf. We’re not playing basketball. We’re not hitting balls out of a park. We’re hitting each other in the head and then we have guys using anabolic steroids and testosterone and HGH.”