The MMA Wrap-Up: Post-March 2011 Edition

After a brief hiatus, the MMA Wrap-Up returns to look back upon a month full of huge surprises and historic moments. From the Zuffa purchase of Strikeforce to Jon Jones being crowned the new UFC light heavyweight champ, you can’t say it wasn’t a memorable March. Okay, maybe you could technically say it. But why?

After a brief hiatus, the MMA Wrap-Up returns to look back upon a month full of huge surprises and historic moments. From the Zuffa purchase of Strikeforce to Jon Jones being crowned the new UFC light heavyweight champ, you can’t say it wasn’t a memorable March. Okay, maybe you could technically say it. But why?

Twitter Mailbag: Superfights, Lesnar vs. Dos Santos, and More

It’s Twitter mailbag time again. I asked for questions and you wonderful people sent in nothing but complex, thought-provoking queries that we will all benefit from considering.

Nah, that’s just a little April Fool’s joke. Most of your questions were…

It’s Twitter mailbag time again. I asked for questions and you wonderful people sent in nothing but complex, thought-provoking queries that we will all benefit from considering.

Nah, that’s just a little April Fool’s joke. Most of your questions were as absurd/predictable/childishly insulting as ever, but there were still some gems worth discussing. Let’s get to it.

@sephiroth872 which do you wanna see more, GSP vs Silva, or Jones vs Silva?

The Truth About Fighting Your Friends

Filed under: UFCIf UFC president Dana White has said it once, he’s said it a thousand times: MMA is not a team sport.

It’s a sport that’s all about individual success and failure. It’s about two men locked in a violent struggle for money and status, a…

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If UFC president Dana White has said it once, he’s said it a thousand times: MMA is not a team sport.

It’s a sport that’s all about individual success and failure. It’s about two men locked in a violent struggle for money and status, and there’s not enough of either to go around.

This, of course, is the inexorable logic of the fight promoter, who stands to profit handsomely if he can convince friends, teammates, and training partners to forego all other loyalties and duke it out in the cage. But then, the promoter doesn’t have to actually get in there and knock his best friend unconscious.

As UFC heavyweight Brendan Schaub put it, “This isn’t basketball. It’s not like Magic [Johnson] and [Larry] Bird playing each other and being all buddy-buddy. Somebody’s getting fu**ed up.”

Eight Ways of Looking at TUF 13: Lesnar vs. Dos Santos

Filed under: UFCWith the first episode of The Ultimate Fighter’s 13th season now in the books, we pause to examine our first impressions of coaches Brock Lesnar and Junior dos Santos, with a few other pithy observations mixed in for good measure.

I. W…

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With the first episode of The Ultimate Fighter‘s 13th season now in the books, we pause to examine our first impressions of coaches Brock Lesnar and Junior dos Santos, with a few other pithy observations mixed in for good measure.

I. Who slipped Brock Lesnar a valium? Okay, maybe it’s unfair to expect him to go all ‘Hulk smash!’ on the first day of filming, but the big man did seem especially low-key throughout the entire first episode. The clips from the rest of the season indicate that this trend may not last, which is good news for ratings even if it might not be so beneficial to his team. Lesnar is a big enough star that his name alone can probably pull viewers, but I bet Spike TV would love to poke him with a cattle prod every now and then to make sure he’s still awake.

Thiago Silva Admits to Cheating Drug Test, but Only After Being Caught

Filed under: UFCOne day after being accused by the NSAC of submitting an intentionally altered urine sample prior to UFC 125, Thiago Silva has come clean…so to speak. In a statement posted to the Underground Forum by the American Top Team, Silva admi…

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One day after being accused by the NSAC of submitting an intentionally altered urine sample prior to UFC 125, Thiago Silva has come clean…so to speak. In a statement posted to the Underground Forum by the American Top Team, Silva admitted to using a “urine adulterant” in an attempt to conceal his use of banned substances in the weeks leading up to the fight.

In other words, now that he’s been officially caught, he’s willing to own up to his mistake.

Such was not the case as recently as a few weeks ago, when he responded to news that his urine sample was still processing by declaring, “My blood is clean. I haven’t used anything.”

That wasn’t true, of course, and he knew it wasn’t true. It just hadn’t been proven untrue yet.

Thiago Silva’s Sample ‘Inconsistent With Human Urine,’ Says NSAC

Filed under: UFCThe urine sample Thiago Silva submitted for testing prior to UFC 125 was “inconsistent with human urine,” according to a complaint filed by the Nevada State Athletic Commission on Tuesday.

NSAC executive director Keith Kizer sent MMA F…

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The urine sample Thiago Silva submitted for testing prior to UFC 125 was “inconsistent with human urine,” according to a complaint filed by the Nevada State Athletic Commission on Tuesday.

NSAC executive director Keith Kizer sent MMA Fighting an e-mail outlining the factual allegations against Silva, who now stands accused of submitting “an adulterated and/or substituted specimen for testing for the Urinalysis” prior to his decision win over Brandon Vera in Las Vegas on January 1.