No sport has as much direct fan-to-athlete contact as MMA. That’s just a great thing for us (though it certainly causes occasional headaches for Zuffa’s PR department). Twitter is the preferred means of communication in this world of fighting people in…
No sport has as much direct fan-to-athlete contact as MMA. That’s just a great thing for us (though it certainly causes occasional headaches for Zuffa’s PR department).
Twitter is the preferred means of communication in this world of fighting people in cages (and sometimes rings).
The thing is, there are dozens of organizations, hundreds of fighters and a boatload of journalists out there that you could hit “Follow” for. Really, though, do you want to be that guy that has 9000 people you’re following and 15 followers, made up of your mother, cousin and a few computer-automated Russian hotties?
Of course not! That’s why we’re here, to help you obtain the most efficient Twitter account possible by picking out the 10 Twitter accounts you have to follow.
Sure, you could follow more, but it’s just really not necessary. You only need a few people to really keep track of MMA on the whole, and that’s what I’m here to help you with.
It feels like years ago that Stephan Bonnar ended his MMA career on an incredibly sour note. After news leaked that Bonnar was close to retiring but wanted just one last big fight, he got his wish in the form of a main event tilt with the greatest of a…
It feels like years ago that Stephan Bonnar ended his MMA career on an incredibly sour note.
After news leaked that Bonnar was close to retiring but wanted just one last big fight, he got his wish in the form of a main event tilt with the greatest of all time, Anderson Silva. It was not at all surprising that Bonnar was knocked out cleanly by “The Spider.”
The surprise came a few weeks after the fight when news broke that he had tested positive for the anabolic steroid Drostanolone. It was the second time the TUF1 finalist had been caught red-handed for steroids.
UFC President Dana White, a long-time supporter of “The American Psycho” made it perfectly clear that he was both angry and disappointed with him. Bonnar seemed to pick up on the general vibe that was sent his way by the MMA community (summed up perfectly here by B/R’s own Jeremy Botter), and went into a deep exile, retreating almost entirely from both Twitter and public appearances.
A matter of hours ago, Bonnarfinally emerged from his hermitage to talk with Ariel Helwani on the MMA Hour. You can watch the full interview here (Bonnar joins just over two hours deep).
The short version of his explanation for how all this happened, basically, is that he was mostly retired and was taking Drostanolone to help recuperate a sore knee. “Experts” (he does not define who they were, nor what credentials they had in terms of determining how likely you are to test positive for anabolic steroids) said that, given how he had ceased using the banned substance two weeks earlier, he would be clean by fight time.
If you listen to it yourself, it’s hard to believe Bonnar is lying. He is clearly saddened by the way things played out, knows his legacy is tarnished, and regrets disappointing the UFC brass. Not to mention, if he was going to lie about it, he could simply use the “S-Mass Lean Gainer” defense, which is actually a legitimate issue in the supplements industry.
That said, while his story was honest and his tone guilt-ridden, he ultimately admitted to many of the negative assumptions surrounding his failed drug test.
He came short of saying “it was my last fight, so I just did whatever,” which is something. However, he admitted to knowingly using PEDs between fights. Not only that, but at no point in the transcript of that interview does the word “doctor” or “prescription” appear.
The cherry on top? “Experts” told him that it would be out of his system by then and, ultimately, that would make it cool, right?
This is not to kick Stephan Bonnar while he is down. He sounded genuinely remorseful and there is no denying the fact that he has suffered more for this failed drug test than perhaps any other fighter in MMA.
Really, though, there is no positive way to spin what he owned up to. There is no good way to say “It was between fights, so I was on steroids and I thought nobody would notice.”
The crux of his defense is twofold; one, that he was using the anabolic steroid to rehab his knee, not gain an unfair advantage, and two, that he was “semi-retired” and was not anticipating a fight to come to fruition in the near future, if ever. Both those, however, don’t pass the sniff test.
The “I only used it to recover from an injury” line is as old and worn as PED scandals themselves. Baseball fans have heard it from many of the greats of the 1990s that were discovered to be users, including Mark McGwire and Andy Pettitte. They still received little quarter in the court of public opinion.
As for his semi-retirement, that would have worked as an excuse if he was actually, officially retired. In fact, it basically would have completely absolved him of any wrongdoing (PEDs are only really PEDs when there is a P to E, after all).
But he wasn’t retired. He was trapped between fights in a division struggling to differentiate between middling veterans and actual title contenders. An ugly situation, sure, and he may have been strongly considering hanging up his gloves.
But, again, he wasn’t retired. He was still on the UFC’s active roster of fighters and when that’s the case, you shouldn’t be taking anabolic steroids.
It’s hard not to feel bad for Bonnar on a personal level. Even while writing this, I had to hold back the urge to soften my words at points. However, when you simply look at his words and his actions, they’re no different from any other disgraced athlete.
As Jon Snowden once detailed, there has always been, and perhaps always will be, a tragically accurate link between MMA and racism. You will find few people who love MMA more than I do, but this is an unfortunate fact that most are aware of, fan of the…
As Jon Snowden once detailed, there has always been, and perhaps always will be, a tragically accurate link between MMA and racism. You will find few people who love MMA more than I do, but this is an unfortunate fact that most are aware of, fan of the sport or not.
While we MMA writers only discuss it when it bubbles to the surface, be it when a clothing line gets banned or a fighter’s seedy past comes to light, it’s no real secret. While some of the calls of widespread racism are ludicrous, such as Quinton “Rampage” Jackson’s allegations about his fight with Forrest Griffin or Floyd Mayweather being Floyd Mayweather, there is no getting around this ugly fact.
With that in mind, Bellator MMA, one of the largest promotions in the world, could end up in a very, very sticky situation with one of its top fighters.
Doug Marshall is an above-average middleweight, and he was an above-average light heavyweight before that. He was, in fact, one of the WEC’s staple fighters.
Few remember him getting a doctor stoppage over Lavar Johnson at WEC 9. Few remember that he was the longest reigning light heavyweight champion in the promotion’s history (he eventually lost the belt to Brian Stann).
What people remember about Doug “The Rhino” Marshall is the Iron Cross tattooed on his chest.
It’s worth stating that the symbol existed long before Nazism’s rise in Germany. It’s also worth stating that Marshall is by no means alone in donning the symbol. Metallica singer/guitarist James Hetfield’s most famous guitar is a 1973 Gibson Les Paul with the Cross bolted on and WWE wrestler Triple H uses it as his logo.
More importantly, it’s worth stating that after thorough research, there is no evidence suggesting Marshall is in any way associated with Neo-Nazism, or holds any of the same beliefs.
Unfortunately for him, far and away the most famous person to be associated with the Iron Cross is Adolf Hitler. He, too, was rarely seen without it on his chest. It also certainly doesn’t help Marshall’s case that he has a shaved head and a slogan that reads “activate the hate.”
While the topic has never really been an issue for Marshall, he is en route to getting far more exposure than he is used to. After beating out Sultan Aliev in a toss-up of a decision, he is going to face Brett Cooper in the finals of the current Bellator middleweight tournament. If he wins that fight, he will be lined up for a title shot with Alexander Shlemenko.
While Bellator and its president, Bjorn Rebney, have never really called attention to Marshall’s tattoos or persona, they (or somebody in the promotion’s marketing department) know it’s a problem. Whenever they release promotional material regarding Marshall, the Iron Cross is obscured. Sometimes it’s a well-placed light, sometimes it’s a side angle.
Ultimately, they may end up needing to confront this issue head-on. MMA has too many detractors for a man with a shaved head, early twentieth century German symbols inked onto his body, a motto based around hatred and a major promotion’s belt around his waist to go unnoticed. Whether or not Marshall himself fits the bill for the stereotypical skinhead MMA freak, he certainly looks the part down to the smallest detail.
Again, Marshall has never said or done anything on the record to indicate that he is anything more than a fighter who needs to get riled up before a fight.
A picture, though, is still worth a thousand words. If those thousand words come in front of the New York state senate, or in a 20/20 Special Report, it could do major damage to the sport.
Look out, Dana, because Yushin Okami is getting very close to another title shot. So much talk around the MMA world lately has been about Jon Fitch, his release, and what it says about the UFC these days. What many people are forgetting is that Fitch i…
Look out, Dana, because YushinOkami is getting very close to another title shot.
So much talk around the MMA world lately has been about Jon Fitch, his release, and what it says about the UFC these days. What many people are forgetting is that Fitch isn’t the only fighter out there that made it very, very high on his division’s rankings utilizing a less-than-exciting, distance-focused fighting style.
YushinOkami, like Fitch, has a game centered around taking opponents down, keeping them there, and punching them intermittently until a horn tells them to stop. Few fans swoon over fights like that, but a 13-4 record over six years of fighting in the UFC speaks for itself.
Last week, Okami overcame a terrible stylistic matchup to beat former Bellator champion Hector Lombard. While Lombard is primarily known for his dynamite hands, few bring up the fact that he went to the Olympics for Judo (Judo, by the way, is the sport about not getting taken down).
In that victory, the Japanese circled around Lombard with a quickness we haven’t seen out of him before. This is, by the way, on top of the fact that he is one of the most physically-imposing specimens in the middleweight division.
All that is to say, YushinOkami looks better than ever. Even before his Renaissance, he was good enough to beat the likes of Nate Marquardt, Mark Munoz and pre-injuries Alan Belcher. This new Okami is a nightmare for any potential middleweight opponent.
He holds back-to-back wins over top-ten opponents and is on a three-fight winning streak. If he faces another name on the UFC’s rankings, it’s basically impossible to deny that he is both the on-paper top contender, and the greatest threat when it comes to beating Anderson Silva.
That, however, is a nightmare scenario for the UFC, and Silva’s always-opinionated management team.
Again, Okami has been near the top of the division for a long, long while now and fought Anderson Silva less than three years ago at UFC 134. That was one of Silva’s least-successful pay-per-view headlines as a champion and given how selective his management team is these days, it is difficult to believe his handlers would be willing to move forward with a fight like that.
As UFC fans have agonized over, consensus top contender Chris Weidman has been stuck in matchmaking hell for a long, long while now. While he will likely be getting his fight with Silva in July, this is a process that has been working itself out for months now, and Weidman is regarded by hardcore MMA fans as one of the hottest young fighters in the sport (and also, was not knocked out by Silva just a couple years ago).
So what is next for YushinOkami? In a perfect world, where title shots were based on a blend of merit, resumes and actual ability to beat the champion, Okami would be lined up to face the winner of VitorBelfort vs. Luke Rockhold.
Belfort, like Okami, has been perched near the top of the middleweight division ever since rejoining the UFC in 2009 and it’s actually remarkable that, to this point, the two have successfully avoided each other. This would set up for, perhaps, the most clear-cut matchup of grappler vs. striker since Royce Gracie vs. Gerard Gordeau.
Rockhold, meanwhile, remains a young up-and-comer, in spite of the fact he earned the Strikeforce middleweight belt and defended it twice. He is, at the very least, yet to face a wrestler of Okami‘s caliber (and, perhaps, hasn’t faced a fighter as good as Okami yet).
Unfortunately, there is no way the UFC would make such a fight. That could, potentially, result in Okami becoming so obviously the top contender in the middleweight division that all other potential opponents for Silva would just seem laughable. While Dana White has been (proverbially) pulling out his hair over “The Spider” and co. resisting every title fight put in front of him, there is no question that both parties are ultimately interested in the same thing.
That thing is getting PPV buys and no matter which way you slice it, Okami doesn’t do much in the way of drawing fans.
Luckily for “Thunder”, there is no shortage of quality middleweight opposition these days.
The winner of Costa Philippou vs. Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza has been thrown around, and that definitely makes sense. Should Michael Bisping beat Alan Belcher, a title against the British striker would be a fun match between long-time top middleweights. Last but not least, there’s always Cung Le ready to headline a Fuel TV or FX card.
Ultimately, though, those are just stopgaps to a problem the UFC is going to have to face. YushinOkami is coming very close to deserving another title shot.
So much about Stefan Struve in the UFC’s heavyweight division is unique. The first, most obvious thing is his height. Struve stands at 6’11”. In the Octagon, the top of the cage reaches his shoulders. He made Pat Barry, who stands at an above-ave…
So much about Stefan Struve in the UFC’s heavyweight division is unique.
The first, most obvious thing is his height. Struve stands at 6’11”. In the Octagon, the top of the cage reaches his shoulders. He made Pat Barry, who stands at an above-average 5’11”, look like a child side-by-side.
He uses that length to lock up nearly inescapable body triangles and pull off some slick submissions that other folks would not be able to. In theory, he would use this to out-range his opponents standing and land hands from miles away (in reality, he is still a work in progress striking-wise).
The second thing is how wiry he is. While a fight like Junior dos Santos vs. Cain Velasquez would lead you to believe that being ripped is a must to succeed in the heavyweight division, Struve stands out with his Randy Moss-like, slender physique.
The third thing, though, is his age. At 25 years old, Struve is the youngest fighter in the UFC’s heavyweight division, with basically no competition. To quote myself:
Roy Nelson is 36 years old. Fabricio Werdum is 35.
On and on, the UFC’s heavyweight division is downright dominated by fighters well over 30 years old. Mark Hunt (38), Matt Mitrione (34), Antonio Silva (33), Pat Barry (33), Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira (36), Josh Barnett (35), Frank Mir (33), Alistair Overeem (32), Daniel Cormier (33), Cheick Kongo (37), Lavar Johnson (35) and Shane Carwin (37) all have a timer floating over their heads, counting down to retirement.
Struve is almost universally ranked as a top-10 heavyweight, and that basically translates to him being the only guy who, realistically, can be expected to remain part of the title picture for years to come. In spite of that, when asked if Stefan Struve will ever be an elite heavyweight, it is hard to respond in the affirmative definitively.
Statistically, Struve has had a very solid UFC career to this point. In 12 fights, he owns a 9-3 record. Of those wins, he owns four submissions, four knockouts and just one decision. Those three losses, however, have been scary knockouts at the hands of Travis Browne, Roy Nelson and Junior dos Santos.
This is not an indictment of Struve. As has been shown time and again, any heavyweight bout can end in a knockout for either fighter. However, as has been shown time and again, your chin does not get stronger as your career goes on.
His height would also put him at a disadvantage in terms of wrestling. Granted, his length gives his jiu-jitsu a boost that allows him to control opponents in a way like few others can. However, with his striking as raw as it is, it ends up a net loss against wrestlers, especially the fearsome lot in today’s heavyweight division (Cain Velasquez and Daniel Cormier, in particular).
All that said, the Stefan Struve fighting in the UFC today is better than the Stefan Struve of 2009, and really, that is where the question is when it comes to Struve‘s chances at becoming a top heavyweight. How high is Stefan Struve‘s ceiling?
His grappling is ever-improving for sure, and while we haven’t seen him on his back much, it’s hard not to give him the benefit of the doubt. The real question is if he can begin to effectively use his reach to strike in MMA.
If his striking develops to the point where he can keep opponents back with ease and land kicks and punches from afar, then he could become the elite heavyweight the UFC is hoping for. If not, he will continue being good, but not great.
The MMA world was up in arms shortly after news broke of the International Olympic Committee’s decision to boot wrestling after the 2016 Games in Brazil. One person, however, saw this as an opportunity. That person was UFC President Dana White and, eve…
The MMA world was up in arms shortly after news broke of the International Olympic Committee’s decision to boot wrestling after the 2016 Games in Brazil. One person, however, saw this as an opportunity. That person was UFC President Dana White and, even though his feelings on the issue were ripped by some famous past and present wrestlers, fans found a silver lining in all this and were, once again, teased with the idea of seeing their favorite sport in the Olympics.
As exciting as the idea sounds, nobody should get especially excited. There is no way that MMA gets into the Olympics at any point in the near future.
Looking at recent trends in IOC decision-making, the format it uses in other combat sports and past MMA tournaments, you can see why it would look elsewhere when considering what other sports to add.
So what leads this writer to believe this? Find out right here!
It feels like years ago that Stephan