The Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation is historically known as one of the worst commissions in all of combat sports. This is not a new thing. If you’ve followed mixed martial arts for any lengthy period of time, it’s quite likely that you’ve heard the jokes about Texas essentially serving as a free-for-all when it comes to combat sports.
Another state won’t license you because you still haven’t quite explained that whole TRT thing? Go fight in Texas. Still in trouble because you used plaster of Paris instead of regular hand wraps? Go fight in Texas.
On Saturday night at UFC 166, I saw multiple members of the Texas commission drinking alcohol in seats typically reserved for the media, but turned over to them by the UFC because they didn’t really have a choice. Not exactly the height of professionalism, if you ask me. But then again, we’re talking about Texas.
So it should come as no surprise that a representative for UFC heavyweight champion Cain Velasquez—who battered title challenger Junior dos Santos far worse than he should have been allowed to on Saturday night, thanks to the same Texas commission—is denying reports that Velasquez has a possible broken jaw.
The Texas commission suspended Velasquez for six months for that same “possible broken jaw,” but anyone who spoke to Velasquez after the fight—or witnessed the post-fight news conference—would have realized that the champion was perfectly healthy. So healthy, in fact, that Velasquez didn’t even worry about seeing a doctor after the card concluded.
“The thing is totally fine, and it was totally fine,” Heidi Seibert, a spokesperson for Zinkin Entertainment, today told MMAjunkie.com. “He hasn’t seen a doctor or anything.”
What a surprise. A Texas representative says a fighter has a possible broken jaw. The fighter does not have a broken jaw.
What do you expect? These are the same doctors that allowed dos Santos to continue fighting Saturday night. The same doctors that allowed K.J. Noons to continue fighting George Sotiropoulos despite Noons saying that he was “seeing black” after an eye poke. The same doctors that took one look at the awful cut peeling Diego Sanchez’s head in two and decided he was OK to go.
In short, this is what we should expect from Texas.
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