Author: Damon Martin

Resurrection Fighting Alliance Developing the Next GSP and Jon Jones of MMA

Before Georges St-Pierre made it to the UFC, he started out in promotions like TKO and Universal Combat Challenge in his home country of Canada. The same can be said for current UFC light heavyweight champion Jon Jones, who cut his teeth in regional sh…

Before Georges St-Pierre made it to the UFC, he started out in promotions like TKO and Universal Combat Challenge in his home country of Canada. The same can be said for current UFC light heavyweight champion Jon Jones, who cut his teeth in regional shows like Battle Cage Xtreme.

Virtually every fighter that’s in the UFC or Bellator now started somewhere else with a promotion that looked to build young talent and prepare them for the next part of their careers so they could perform on the biggest stages under the brightest lights.

The Resurrection Fighting Alliance hopes to brand itself as the premiere league that will breed and grow the best up-and-coming talent in the MMA world.

Headed up by famed MMA manager Ed Soares, the RFA is quickly becoming the home to many top prospects in the sport.  The goal, according to the promotion’s president, is to make opportunities for the best young fighters in MMA and to give them a home as they develop into the superstars of tomorrow.

“We’re out there trying to create more opportunities for fighters,” Soares told Bleacher Report.   “Sven (Bean) has been in the business a long time, I’ve been in the business a long time, everyone involved has been in the business for a long time.  At the end of the day, we’re fans of the sport and we’ve worked at every angle of the sport and we just try to do the best that we can.”

While the RFA did recently sign a multi-fight television deal with AXS TV, they aren’t trying to match other promotions dollar for dollar when it comes to huge over-the-top shows.  They are building from the ground up, and slowly but surely they believe they can be a success in the difficult business of MMA.

“We’re going to build this step by step.  We don’t have some big money investor behind us, not yet, and even if we did we’re going to be very smart and we’re going to build it one step at a time.  I don’t know if it’s the right plan, but it’s the plan that we’re doing and it’s the plan that’s going to work in the long run,” Soares stated.   “Because I’m not just trying to do one or two events and create a bunch of hype. I really want to create an opportunity to start developing fighters and become what Tuesday Night Fights on USA where the guys got built up big enough to go to the big pay-per-view shows or go to a bigger show.”

The talent pool at RFA is already pretty deep and it’s only growing with each show.  They’ve already landed some famous names with fighters like rising star Sergio Pettis (younger brother of UFC featherweight contender Anthony Pettis), and will soon feature Chinzo Machida, the older sibling of former UFC champion Lyoto Machida. 

Add to that names like undefeated Ohio State All-American Lance Palmer and upcoming headliner Brandon Thatch, who put in work with UFC champion Georges St-Pierre recently, and the RFA is quickly becoming the go-to promotion for the best young talent.

“That’s what we want to do.  We want do develop new talent,” said Soares.

The plan for 2013 is for the RFA to do between eight and 10 shows total, and with each card they are adding new talent to the roster.  The developmental process isn’t something that happens overnight, but Soares believes a slow and steady approach will eventually prove that their competitors are destined to be future champions in promotions like the UFC.

“It’s not going to be built overnight.  It’s not going to be built in two or three shows,” said Soares.   “We have to slowly build it up, make a strong foundation and the strong foundation will make everything better.”

The next RFA show will air on AXS TV on Friday night from Denver, Colarado, and tickets are still available for the event.

Damon Martin is a Featured Columnist for Bleacher Report and all quotes were obtained first hand unless otherwise noted.

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Dan Hardy Injured; Jordan Mein Steps in to Face Matt Brown at UFC on Fox 7

A major change has been made to the upcoming UFC on Fox 7 card as UFC officials announced overnight that Dan Hardy fell to an injury during his training camp that will keep him from meeting Matt Brown on April 20 in San Jose as part of the next ma…

A major change has been made to the upcoming UFC on Fox 7 card as UFC officials announced overnight that Dan Hardy fell to an injury during his training camp that will keep him from meeting Matt Brown on April 20 in San Jose as part of the next major Fox card (via Yahoo Sports).

It didn’t take long, however, for UFC matchmaker Joe Silva to find a suitable replacement as former Strikeforce fighter Jordan Mein will step into Hardy’s shoes and face Brown at the upcoming event.

Mein just made his debut in the Octagon last weekend at UFC 158 where he brutalized former middleweight contender Dan Miller, finishing the fight in the first round.  It marked the first time in over 20 professional fights that Miller had been finished.

The win introduced Mein to the UFC audience in a big way, and at only 23 years of age, the young Canadian has already managed to rack up 35 professional fights with 27 victories.

A nasty striker who throws from all angles, Mein was considered one of the top prospects coming to the UFC by way of Strikeforce and he’s already defeated a list of former Octagon competitors.

Mein holds wins over names such as Joe Riggs, Forrest Petz and Josh Burkman and will look to make an even bigger splash for his next fight in the UFC.

It won’t be an easy task however, going up against former Ultimate Fighter competitor, Matt Brown. 

The long time UFC welterweight is currently riding a four-fight win streak in the UFC, including his devastating knockout over Ultimate Fighter season 1 cast member Mike Swick in his last match at UFC on Fox 5.

The Ohio native has been traveling and training at numerous locations for his upcoming fight, but now faces an entirely new opponent with Hardy out of the picture and being replaced by Mein.

As for Dan Hardy, UFC officials did not disclose the injury that the British-born fighter suffered or when he would be able to return to action.

Damon Martin is a Featured Columnist for Bleacher Report

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UFC VP Marc Ratner Asks Commission to Revisit Rules Concerning Marijuana Usage

There’s a changing culture in the United States when it comes to the use of marijuana and the legalization of the drug. Several states like California and Nevada have made medical marijuana legal for users with a doctor’s prescription, and in the last …

There’s a changing culture in the United States when it comes to the use of marijuana and the legalization of the drug.

Several states like California and Nevada have made medical marijuana legal for users with a doctor’s prescription, and in the last election cycle in 2012 states such as Colorado and Washington made the purchase and sale of marijuana completely legal.

In athletics, marijuana is still treated as a banned substance and listed as a performance enhancing drug punishable by similar suspensions and fines as competitors who test positive for substances like steroids.

In 2011, UFC welterweight Nick Diaz tested positive for marijuana for a second time following his fight against Carlos Condit at UFC 142.  Previously, when Diaz tested positive in 2007 he was suspended for six months and fined $3000.

The second infraction, however, brought down a much stiffer penalty as Diaz was suspended for one year from active competition and fined $60,000 by the Nevada State Athletic Commission. In maybe an even more absurd move, boxer Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. recently tested positive for marijuana and was suspended nine months and fined $900,000 as a penalty.

It was the fighter’s second positive test overall (Chavez tested positive for a diuretic in 2009), but this was the first for marijuana and the fine handed down came close to one million dollars.

Recently, several other fighters in the UFC have also tested positive for marijuana including Dave Herman, Alex Caceres and Matt Riddle. All were suspended from competition, but as time moves on will the rules surrounding marijuana and athletic commissions finally change?

WADA (World Anti-Doping Agency), the recognized leader in drug testing for athletics, has gone on the record stating that they are looking at a potential change to their policy that lists marijuana as a performance enhancing drug and may be removed from the banned list all together.  While the rule has not changed yet, WADA officials are considering the change, and at it appears the trickle down effect is starting to reach athletic commissions in America as well.

During a meeting held on Thursday at the Nevada State Athletic Commission, UFC Vice President of Regulatory Affairs Marc Ratner spoke about the need to revisit the rules surrounding marijuana and its current ban as a performance enhancing drug.

“Society is changing, it’s a different world now than when I was on the commission.  States are legalizing marijuana and it’s becoming more and more of a problem with fighters testing positive and the metabolites,” said Ratner.

Ratner believes the discussion has to happen because as laws continue to change and marijuana is becoming less and less of an illegal drug with little to no proof of it’s use as an actual performance enhancer, competitors likely shouldn’t be punished the way they are currently.

“I think it’s something that has to be discussed on a commission level now,” said Ratner.  “Right now I just cannot believe that a performance enhancing drug and marijuana can be treated the same.  It just doesn’t make sense to the world anymore and it’s something that has to be brought up.”

The commissioners attending the meeting agreed with Ratner‘s statement, but said that more research needed to be done and they would agree to talk further about the subject at their next meeting.

The commission typically meets about every 30 days to discuss various issues and licensing hearings, and at that time they will reconvene and discuss the topic of marijuana in sports at that time.

Damon Martin is a Featured Columnist for Bleacher Report and all quotes were obtained first hand unless otherwise noted

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Nevada Commission Discussing Possible Changes to TRT Policy and Testing Levels

On Thursday, the Nevada State Athletic Commission held a meeting to discuss certain drug testing protocols including the controversial usage of testosterone replacement therapy (TRT). TRT has increasingly been in the spotlight over the last few months …

On Thursday, the Nevada State Athletic Commission held a meeting to discuss certain drug testing protocols including the controversial usage of testosterone replacement therapy (TRT).

TRT has increasingly been in the spotlight over the last few months with athletes like Vitor Belfort, who at 35 years of age now has to have testosterone injections to boost his levels back to normal, and the commission is paying attention.

UFC president Dana White has also come out recently as staunch opposition to the use of TRT by his fighters and now will be independently testing athletes who are on the treatment throughout their training camps to ensure their testosterone levels remain at legal limits.

The commission held a meeting on Thursday to discuss possible changes to the policy on how they handle TRT exemptions (called Temporary Use Exemptions—TUE) and the levels at which they produce a positive test.

Current standards by WADA (World Anti-Doping Agency) allows for testosterone levels to reach a 4:1 ratio in testosterone to epitestosterone in a normal male athlete.   The average for a normal functioning male is a 1:1 ratio, but WADA allows up to a 4:1 ratio without testing positive for elevated testosterone.

The state of Nevada allows up to a 6:1 ratio, but talk on Thursday was about possibly changing that to the standard WADA rule of 4:1 with additional testing also being instituted.  The testing would be a carbon isotope test (CIR), which actually goes beyond testing the levels of testosterone in the human body.

A CIR test actually looks to see if the additional testosterone in the body is being produced naturally or by an outside product like synthetic testosterone or a performance enhancing drug.  The CIR test is much more expensive, but was used recently by the California State Athletic Commission when they had a positive test result returned for heavyweight Lavar Johnson following his fight against Brendan Schaub at UFC 157.

“He was tested on the card in Anaheim which was about a month ago and the urine test came back the commission said there is a possibility of a positive here, we’re going to have this CIR test, carbon test (done). It took about not quite a month but about 17 days before we got results.  It was $700 for that test.  It’s a pretty expensive test,” explained Marc Ratner, Vice President of Regulatory Affairs for the UFC, who attended the commission meeting where he previously served as executive director.

Keith Kizer, the current executive director of the Nevada State Athletic Commission, revealed that Johnson’s test came back at 6.2:1 ratio for his testosterone to epitestosterone level, which then led the California commission to run the additional CIR test. The secondary test came back positive and Johnson is awaiting punishment from the commission for the infraction.

The problem with CIR testing as noted by Ratner is the overall cost, which can get quite expensive for a state athletic commission’s yearly budget. 

Instead of changing the rules on Thursday however the commission instead voted to do further investigation into the normal levels of testosterone ratios in fighters that compete in their state.

Currently, when a fighter tests below the legal 6:1 limit, their actual testing amounts aren’t given to the commission, only the final verdict that they didn’t test positive.  When a fighter’s levels are over the legal limit after an additional inquiry, the testing lab will give the commission the actual score for the test.

The idea presented by the commission during their meeting was to conduct a study of a wide range of fighters either past or going forward to determine what a “normal” level of testosterone ratio would be.  Most fighters test under the legal limits, but the commissioners in Nevada are trying to get a sense of what level under 4:1 they are testing at, on average.

“If they could get us the ones that are below 4 to 1 that are normal, I’m curious myself just to see what they come out as.  Are most of our competitors 1:1? Or are most of our competitors higher?” asked Dr. Timothy Trainor during the meeting.   “I think that might be some useful information, especially if numbers of like 300 or 400 (fighters’) actual samples.  That could help us make our decisions further with where we want to go with our T to E ratio.”

The study conducted will be internal only for the commission and not for public consumption.

Depending on the ultimate results, the commission plans to circle back around to the issue at their next meeting and have further discussions on the possibility of changing the legal ratios from 6:1 down to the WADA-recognized level of 4:1.

Damon Martin is a Featured Columnist for Bleacher Report and all quotes were obtained first hand unless otherwise noted.

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Jon Jones Responds to Sonnen: “I’m Going to Use My TV Platform to Clown You”

For the last few weeks, UFC Tonight co-host Chael Sonnen has been using his air time to take more than a few jabs at his next opponent UFC light heavyweight champion Jon Jones. From claiming that Jones would soon be the “Octomom of the Octagon” after h…

For the last few weeks, UFC Tonight co-host Chael Sonnen has been using his air time to take more than a few jabs at his next opponent UFC light heavyweight champion Jon Jones.

From claiming that Jones would soon be the “Octomom of the Octagon” after having his third child recently to his most recent statement saying, “Jon, I’m coming to New Jersey, ‘cause I got a job to do. I’m a fully loaded cannon, boy, and I’m pointing right at you. So here’s a little advice, go get in your car and go hit another tree, do whatever you gotta do to stay away Jones, you don’t want to fight me.”

While Sonnen‘s poetry was creative, Jones was certainly paying attention and he wasn’t laughing.

The UFC light heavyweight king after being poked and prodded for a few weeks now finally took to his Twitter account to respond to Sonnen.  While he used words this time around, he plans on making his statement via their fight at UFC 159 on April 27.

Jones wasn’t done with his single message however because Sonnen‘s barbs happen quite often, and he plans on shutting him up in a big way when they face off in the Octagon.

“Please keep it going, feed me,” Jones wrote.  “There will be no lines to remember come April 27.”

Sonnen‘s ability to hype a fight is unmatched in all of MMA, but it also writes a rather large check that he’s then forced to cash on fight night.

With more than a month still to go until fight time, Sonnen will have plenty of space left on his weekly appearance via UFC Tonight to respond and he’s likely to do just that next Tuesday when the show airs again.

This isn’t the first time Jones has had an opponent come after him prior to the fight.

During the lead-up to his fight against former UFC light heavyweight champion Quinton “Rampage” Jackson, the verbal sparring got quite heated, and then again when Jones faced off with his former teammate and friend Rashad Evans.

In both cases, Jones won the fights in dominant fashion finishing Jackson and winning a one-sided five round decision against Evans.

Jones plans on keeping that streak alive when he faces Sonnen in New Jersey at UFC 159.

Damon Martin is a Featured Columnist for Bleacher Report

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Cris Cyborg Asked for Ronda Rousey in Strikeforce, Was Told “She’s Not Ready”

The rivalry between former Strikeforce women’s champion Cris “Cyborg” Santos and current UFC bantamweight champ Ronda Rousey doesn’t seem to slow down despite the fact that they are in two different organizations with little hope of facing one another …

The rivalry between former Strikeforce women’s champion Cris “Cyborg” Santos and current UFC bantamweight champ Ronda Rousey doesn’t seem to slow down despite the fact that they are in two different organizations with little hope of facing one another in at least the next year.

Still, it’s hard to ignore that fire that burns between the two women as rarely can one of them go a single interview without the other’s name coming up.

As Cyborg prepares for her debut in Invicta FC following more than a year away from the sport after testing positive for a banned substance in 2011, she’s lasered in on the task at hand of getting her career back on track.  That doesn’t mean, however, that the desire to destroy Rousey is ever far from her mind.

The history between Cyborg and Rousey goes back to November 2011 when the former Olympic Judo medalist defeated Julia Budd at a Strikeforce Challengers show while competing at 145 pounds.   At the time, Rousey said she was ready to drop down to bantamweight and challenge champion Miesha Tate, but Cyborg was already looking at her as a potential opponent at featherweight.

Following her win over Hiroko Yamanaka in Strikeforce almost exactly a month later, Cyborg reveals that she asked to face Rousey, but didn’t get the answer she was expecting.

“I don’t want to talk trash about somebody, I want to prove it inside the cage.  When she was in my weight class she said ‘I want to fight Cris Cyborg’ and when I had my last fight against Hiroko (Yamanaka) I talked to Sean Shelby, the matchmaker at Strikeforce, and I said ‘I want Ronda next.’  He said ‘no, she’s not ready for you’ and after that fight she’s talking bad about me but you guys protected her,” Santos revealed in an interview with Bleacher Report

“Because after my fight I told them I want to fight her and they said no she’s not ready for you.”

In Cyborg’s opinion, Rousey was being protected and continues to live under the same shield of protection right now. The Brazilian isn’t sure why a fighter that competed in the Olympics at 154 pounds, then fought MMA at 145 pounds, insists that it’s Santos who drops down to bantamweight for their fight to finally happen. 

“She fought at 154 (pounds) in Judo, and I think who is running?  It’s not me. I fight at 145, she fought at 145, who’s running from this fight? Not me,” said Cyborg.   “People need to see the fact to see who’s running.”

Currently, Cyborg is about to embark on the first of a three-fight deal with Invicta FC with the goal being to win her fight next weekend and then move onto a featherweight title fight against fellow former Strikeforce champion Marloes Coenen. 

If all goes well in her three fights, Santos is happy to circle back around and see if the fight with Rousey will happen at that point.  Whether it’s now, six months from now or a year in the making, Santos is more than confident that she will eventually get her hands on Rousey and all the talk won’t matter inside the cage.

“I think this fight will happen, but when she’s ready for this fight.  Not when I want to fight her, when you guys think she’s ready for this fight.  I’ll be ready,” said Santos.

“I’m very excited for this fight because I don’t need to talk nothing. Inside the cage nobody can say anything.”

 

Damon Martin is a featured columnist for Bleacher Report and all quotes were obtained firsthand unless otherwise noted.

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