UFC president Dana White must not be enjoying the last few days, what with UFC middleweight number one contender Chael Sonnen testing positive for banned PED(s). White can’t be happy with the potential loss of what would have been one of the biggest bouts of 2011, and one which could have set the stage for several other large bouts, but while he didn’t address the Sonnen situation directly he did recently discuss his thoughts on the UFC also fining the fighters who test positive. Here’s the blurb via Yahoo Sports! Kevin Iole:
“What else do I do?. We’ve spent millions of dollars – literally, millions of dollars – to try to get this thing regulated so they can be tested by the government. Do you know how much it costs us to put on that fighter seminar every year? Let me tell you, we’re bringing guys in from all over the world. We have guys from England, Germany, Croatia, Australia, Korea. We have 350 guys under contract and they’re coming from all over the world. It costs us a (expletive) ton, but we do it because it’s important. When one of them fails a test, the government is going to fine them and suspend them and tell them they can’t make a living for a year. So should I come in after they’ve already lost the ability to make a living for a year and been fined all this money and, in the worst economic disaster in the history of the world, fine them another huge amount and take away their ability to make a living even longer?”
White makes a lot of sense, as the fighter is already losing a ton of money and most have major expenses and few have second jobs. Fighters don’t make nearly as much as some professional sports and so hitting them in their pocket book again wouldn’t be exactly the most “human” thing to do. Still, we’ll wait to see what the fallout is regarding the Chael Sonnen mess.