This is possibly the smartest thing Nick Diaz has done throughout his entire mixed martial arts career.By “this” of course, I am referring to Diaz’s hiring of Las Vegas attorney Ross Goodman to handle his suspension for testing positive for marijuana m…
This is possibly the smartest thing Nick Diaz has done throughout his entire mixed martial arts career.
By “this” of course, I am referring to Diaz’s hiring of Las Vegas attorney Ross Goodman to handle his suspension for testing positive for marijuana metabolites following his UFC 143 bout with Carlos Condit.
Goodman filed a response to the suspension with the Nevada commission on Monday afternoon. In the response, Goodman notes that Diaz tested positive for marijuana metabolites and not actual marijuana, thus he cannot be suspended because marijuana metabolites are not a banned substance. As he told ESPN.com after filing the response:
The basis to discipline Mr. Diaz is that he tested positive for a prohibited substance. We know he didn’t test positive for marijuana. So, you look to see at WADA whether marijuana metabolites are prohibited. They do not prohibit it in any category.
Goodman said that Diaz tested positive for THC-Carboxylic Acid, which is a non-active marijuana metabolite.
“You have to test positive for marijuana, as opposed to this inactive ingredient Nick did. If there’s nothing in the rules prohibiting marijuana metabolites, why are we here?”
Goodman’s argument follows the exact line of thinking that Vancouver Athletic Commissioner Jonathan Tweedale laid out in a column last week.
That cannabinoid metabolites are found in a fighter’s sample is consistent with the fighter ceasing to use a month before, a week before, or a day in advance of the contest. Heavy users have been documented as testing positive over 46 days after the most recent use. (See, e.g., Ellis GM, Maun MA, Judson BA, et al. Excretion patterns of cannabinoid metabolites after last use in a group of chronic users. Clin Pharmacol Ther 1986;38:572-578; and Smith-Kielland A, Skuterud B, Morland J. Urinary excretion of 11-nor-9-carboxy-delta9-tetrahydrocannabinol and cannabinoids in frequent and infrequent drug users. J Anal Toxicol 1999; 23:323-332.) None of these time periods are instances of use “before or during” the contest – as the psychoactive and physiological effects of marijuana would no longer be in effect.
Accordingly, if the Nevada Athletic Commission’s only basis for issuing a complaint against Nick Diaz is metabolites revealed by urinalysis of a sample collected on fight night, then it is unlikely the Commission has sufficient evidence to prove a violation under a Principled Interpretation of its regulations.
Even if the interpretation of Nevada’s regulation mandated by the Principled Interpretation is mistaken, the rationale-based analysis is still intact. Any disciplinary action levied against Mr. Diaz would have no rational basis in the principles underlying a defensible anti-doping regime unless there is evidence Mr. Diaz was under the effects of marijuana on fight night.
From a legal perspective, Diaz and Goodman appear to have an airtight case. The Nevada State Athletic Commission simply cannot ban Diaz if he merely tested positive for inactive marijuana metabolites because they are not a banned substance.
Perhaps we’ll get to see that rematch between Diaz and Carlos Condit this summer, after all.
I’ll give Quinton Jackson this much: at least he’s not being wishy-washy.Jackson said over the weekend that he wanted out of the UFC, and he reiterated that belief on Monday during an interview with Bas Rutten for Inside MMA. HDNet has made the full an…
I’ll give Quinton Jackson this much: at least he’s not being wishy-washy.
Let’s take a look at a few of Jackson’s better quotes.
I don’t want to fight for the UFC. I think the fans don’t understand. They think that just because I make a lot of money, I should be happy because I’ve got a nice house. I’ve always said that I fight for money because it’s my career, but I think a lot of fans are sheep, and they don’t understand it.The thing is, the UFC knew I was injured, and I still fought for them. I feel like, honestly, if I didn’t fight on that card in Japan, I don’t think the appeal would have been as big. I’m not trying to toot my own horn or nothing like that. But they only had me and Mark Hunt.
This is interesting. According to my own sources close to the UFC, Jackson turned down three separate fights before finally agreeing to fight Ryan Bader in Japan. Jackson also threw a major tantrum in order to be included on the Japan card instead of fighting on the second FOX show from Chicago.
So, after turning down three perfectly capable opponents, Jackson gets stuck with a wrestler. He loses the fight, then complains when the UFC doesn’t shower him with adulation for gutting out an injury to fight on a card he demanded to fight on in the first place.
I think Joe Silva needs to be slapped in the face. I’m sorry, you’ve got a fighter like me who likes to go out there and fight fights.So why do you keep giving me wrestlers who are going to take me down and hump me?
Another curious quote here. Shogun Rua isn’t a wrestler. LyotoMachida isn’t a wrestler. Stephan Bonnar could be a wrestler, I guess, but he always seems to prefer a good, ugly striking battle. That would seem to fit right into Jackson’s wheelhouse.
And yet, according to sources close to the promotion, Jackson turned down fights with all three of those opponents over the past year for one reason or another.
I think what happened was that I did an interview with this one guy and he recorded it. I thought he was going to put it up just like you’re doing. But no, he took some of it and typed it. And the guy who typed it was a British guy. He didn’t understand my English. He didn’t understand my accent. He just typed some stuff that he thought I said, which is wrong.
I think they tried to say that I had like a UFC doctor give it to me or something like that, which is wrong. I had my personal doctor. He gets paid by the UFC. He’s my personal doctor, but I don’t have to pay him. He just sends the bill to UFC basically is what I said.
So that’s why I said the UFC knew I was hurt. I don’t know if the UFC knew what I was doing. But the UFC paid me to see him. He sent me to another doctor. The doctor that he sent me to, I pay him. The UFC doesn’t pay the doctor who did the TRT. I pay that TRT.
This is a much better explanation for the interview Jackson gave regarding his testosterone replacement therapy, and I take him at his word. These things sometime happen in translation.
But Jackson should have acted much quicker in getting this clarified, because it could’ve become a much uglier situation than it did over the past week.
This seems like a situation that cannot be rectified. Jackson’s mind is made up, and I’m not sure there’s anything Dana White and the UFC can do to fix it.
Two years ago, I would have stressed the urgency of getting this thing repaired as soon as possible. Now? I’m not sure it’s worth the hassle. Jackson’s days as a contender at light heavyweight are through. He’s going to continually be a headache for White and Joe Silva. And he’s already been dominated once by Jon Jones, which means fans won’t be clamoring to see him climb the ladder into championship contention a second time around.
Quinton Jackson is an absolute legend of the sport. He’s been one of my absolute favorite fighters to cover and watch over the past decade. I’d like to see him retire from fighting in the biggest show in the world and go on to be a huge action star in Hollywood.
What I don’t want to see is his career end with complaints, lawsuits and ugly fights against no-name competition at local shows on Indian reservations.
In today’s UFC Morning Update, I shared the video of the horrific beating that Joe Warren took at the hands of Pat Curran at Friday night’s Bellator 60 card. In reality, the beating wasn’t just issued by Curran, but also by referee Jeff Malott, who sho…
In today’s UFC Morning Update, I shared the video of the horrific beating that Joe Warren took at the hands of Pat Curran at Friday night’s Bellator 60 card. In reality, the beating wasn’t just issued by Curran, but also by referee Jeff Malott, who should be reprimanded and stripped of his license, never to referee another professional fight again.
I did not get a chance to see the Curran/Warren fight the other night because they were on right before me, but Warren did not look in good shape at all backstage after the fight. I’m not one to have my stomach easily turned either, but I was genuinely afraid for him when he passed by as they were practically carrying him. I keep hearing it was a late stoppage, and then that it wasn’t, back and forth. Either way, I genuinely hope that he is OK. That’s a scary thing to see.
It’s not a stretch to say that Warren’s career may have been prematurely ended by an incompetent referee on Friday night. I don’t have any kind of confirmation on Warren’s current condition, but I know he’s out of the hospital.
He almost certainly suffered at least one concussion and possibly two, and that’s the kind of thing that will make a 35 year old man think long and hard before stepping back in the cage for a fight.
We had quite the weekend in mixed martial arts action, didn’t we?Things kicked off Friday night with the newly-revamped Ultimate Fighter Live and didn’t stop until Bob Sapp’s awful sham of a performance on Sunday morning’s Super Fight League debut in I…
We had quite the weekend in mixed martial arts action, didn’t we?
Things kicked off Friday night with the newly-revamped Ultimate Fighter Live and didn’t stop until Bob Sapp’s awful sham of a performance on Sunday morning’s Super Fight League debut in India.
Let’s take a look at the latest and greatest from the MMA world.
The Ultimate Fighter Live Debuts to Mostly Rave Reviews
We got our first look at the reboot of the UFC’s reality series on Friday night, and it was a good viewing experience.
From the start of the show, it was clear that we wouldn’t be seeing the same old Ultimate Fighter. With just over two hours of airtime dedicated to the show, I wasn’t quite sure how they would fit all 16 elimination fights into the broadcast. They fixed that problem in a hurry, announcing at the top that all of the elimination fights would be one round.
The new format added plenty of excitement to the event. It forced fighters to try and finish fights early and gave a sense of urgency to the whole thing. We saw exciting finishes and a few decent prospects, but we also saw some of the highly-touted favorites—including a few fighters I previewed during a column last week—lose before ever making it into the house.
I’m still a big believer that the show needs commentary, however. Watching the fights unfold in complete silence was a little unnerving, and the occasional thoughts thrown in by Dana White, Urijah Faber and Dominick Cruz really didn’t add much to the show.
This likely won’t be a glaring problem once we move to just one fight per show, but it stood out like a sore thumb on the debut. Jon Anik is already in the house, so there’s no reason not to use him.
Out of the fighters who actually won and moved into the house, I think you have to keep an eye on Justin Lawrence and Cristiano Marcello. Lawrence displayed some incredible striking in dispatching favorite James Krause, and Marcello proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that he’s going to be the best jiu-jitsu artist on the show.
And yes, that includes Faber and Cruz and likely anyone else they bring in to help coach the grappling side of things.
Atrocious Refereeing Nearly Gets Joe Warren Killed
Jeff Malott may be a perfectly serviceable referee. I’m not all that familiar with his previous work.
What I do know, however, is that Malott did one of the absolute worst refereeing jobs in the history of the sport on Saturday night in the Joe Warren vs. Pat Curran title fight at Bellator 60.
If you missed the show, I’ve got a video of the finishing moments embedded below. It’s cringe-worthy, to say the least. By my count, Curran drilled Warren with more than 40 needless punches and knees.
It’s one of the worst stoppages I can remember.
Warren was scheduled to try and make the Olympic team just five weeks from now. He’s 35 years old and this is his last shot at making the team after sitting out the last Olympics due to a failed marijuana test.
And yeah, Warren probably shouldn’t have taken an MMA fight just five weeks before the Olympic trials, and certainly not a championship fight in a weight class above his natural weight.
But this atrocious stoppage will almost certainly prevent Warren from going to the trials, and that’s a real shame.
Bob Sapp Embarrasses the Sport Once Again
I tried to tell you that Bob Sapp was going to take another dive in his Super Fight League main event against James Thompson on Sunday. Some of you agreed with me, but a lot of you called me out for being “disrespectful” to Sapp and what he’s accomplished over his career.
And then, once again, Sapp was involved in a criminally shady ending to a mixed martial arts fight.
Here’s the gist, for those of you who missed it: Thompson took Sapp down when the fight began and stayed on top of him for a few seconds. Sapp reversed it, leading me to believe that, for once in the last five years, he actually came to fight.
He even got Thompson in a Salaverry crucifix and started unleashing some ground and pound. It looked like “The Beast” was back.
And then Thompson reversed Sapp, grabbing a double-leg and rolling him over. Sapp ended up on his back and immediately tapped as if his entire life depended on it. He held his hamstring, signaling that he suffered a leg injury during the reversal.
Never mind that instant replays showed nothing of the sort. Color commentator Phil Baroni tried to make sense of it, but there was no real way to sell it as a legitimate injury.
And then, as if to add insult to a faked injury, Sapp got to his feet and walked around the cage with nary a limp in sight. He even bounced up and down a few times for effect.
This was a farce. But that’s always the way things are when Bob Sapp is involved. Once again I find myself hoping that promoters will stop booking him, but I fully realize that it’s not going to happen.
Sapp has a good gig. Go in for a fight, take a dive and get paid $30,000 to do so. I can’t blame the big man for riding the gravy train. But shame on promoters like Ken Pavia and Super Fight League for enabling him.
The full television lineup for UFC 145 has been finalized. The FX Prelims broadcast features John Makdessi vs. Anthony Njokuani, Matt Brown vs. Steven Thompson, Travis Browne vs. Chad Griggs and Miguel Torres vs. Michael McDonald.
Bellator has a video game coming out this summer. It’ll be available as a download for XBox Live and Playstation. It’s being developed by the same people who made Supremacy MMA, which doesn’t bode well for the quality of the game.
The six-fight main card for UFC on FUEL 2 is now finalized. That’s the one headlined by Alexander Gustafsson vs. Thiago Silva.
Videos of the Day
Pat Curran nearly kills Joe Warren at Bellator 60, and referee Jeff Malott allows it to happen: I’ve already spoken at length about this travesty, so I won’t go into it again.
Super Fight League 1 replay from India: Watch the full Super Fight League 1 event replay. It’s an event that my colleague Jonathan Snowden believes is one of the worst of all time. He’s right.
Benson Henderson shows off his signature moves: The UFC lightweight champion details some of his unique moves on Ultimate Insider.
New Fights Announced:
Here’s a quick look at all of the fights announced over the weekend.
The elimination round is over.Sixteen UFC hopefuls advanced into the Ultimate Fighter house on Friday night’s debut episode of The Ultimate Fighter Live, and now, the hard part begins.They’ll be sequestered from society, locked up in a mansion with not…
The elimination round is over.
Sixteen UFC hopefuls advanced into the Ultimate Fighter house on Friday night’s debut episode of The Ultimate Fighter Live, and now, the hard part begins.
They’ll be sequestered from society, locked up in a mansion with nothing to do but train and annoy each other. Past Ultimate Fighter contestants have spoken about the difficulty of being locked away for six weeks, often naming that isolation as the worst part of being on the show.
The contestants on this season face an even greater challenge due to the live nature of the show. Instead of six weeks away from their families and friends, they’ll be stuck inside the house for 13 weeks. Expect plenty of madness as they start to get on each other’s nerves and miss the daily comforts of cell phones, Internet and television.
One thing they’ll have plenty of time for, though, is training. And so, as we prepare for the real fun to begin next Friday on FX, let’s take a look at the five contestants who have the best shot of seeing their way through to the finals and becoming the next Ultimate Fighter.
It hasn’t been a good year for Quinton Jackson.First he got injured while training to fight Ryan Bader at UFC 144 in Japan. That sucked, but a doctor that either works or doesn’t work for the UFC—depending on which version of the story you listen…
First he got injured while training to fight Ryan Bader at UFC 144 in Japan. That sucked, but a doctor that either works or doesn’t work for the UFC—depending on which version of the story you listen to—told him that if he took testosterone replacement therapy, he would magically heal and be ready to fight Bader. Imagine that.
So he did it, and yes, he magically healed up. The only problem is that he still wasn’t able to do cardio, so he came in overweight for the Bader fight. He looked fat and listless and really, outside of a big slam in the second round that nearly killed Bader, didn’t really offer up much in the way of competition.
Then he came home and gave an ill-advised interview to Fighters Only where he revealed all about the TRT use. He also voiced a few other concerns. Things were building up inside of Jackson, and it was only a matter of time before something bad happened. That’s how it always is with Rampage.
Last night was the moment we’ve all been waiting for. Jackson finally let go on Twitter and said he wants out of the UFC.
@OldNickSuperchi the ufc makes billions off us all over the world,n pay us chump change! Boxers r boring but making buckets of money,THINK!
Well I’m hoping the @ufc just let me go so I can do my thang,they took my love of fighting after the Forest fight! #bloodtypeBpositive
@skanksideup y u care that its the ufc? I can fight better fights n a diff show!
To recap:
The UFC makes billions from shows around the world (the most they’ve ever made in a year was probably a quarter of that number, but don’t let that distract you from a great story).
They’ve stolen Rampage’s love of fighting—after he turned down a big fight on FOX television because he wanted to fight in Japan and the UFC gave him what he wanted. Oh, and this was after the UFC stuck by him after his last mental breakdown resulted in him leading California cops on a high-speed chase.
He can fight somewhere else and have more fun (and make 1/25th of his current salary while also getting stiffed on paychecks in the process).
Jackson has always been a headache and a thorn in the side of Dana White. But there was a time Jackson could deliver in the cage, and that’s simply not the case anymore. He’s a slow, plodding version of the killer he once was in the PRIDE rings. He’ll never be a championship contender because he just fancies himself a boxer.
I think Jackson has a solid future in the movie business, and it’s probably time for him to pursue that avenue. Even long-time Rampage fans have to be sick and tired of the complaining at this point.
I’ll give