LAS VEGAS — Tim Kennedy is fighting in two days and hasn’t been drug tested. This is a problem for Tim Kennedy, because as he’ll be the first to tell you, Tim Kennedy could be pumped full of steroids this very second and you’d be none the wiser.
But that’s not to suggest Kennedy has aired his concern purely for public consumption. On several occasions he’s even attempted to cut out the middleman and call the Nevada Athletic Commission directly, informing them that he’d really, really enjoy it if they could send a stiff little inspector down to Greg Jackson’s, find the swashbuckling middleweight, open up a briefcase, and request a few dabs of urine. (Just a few. Kennedy isn’t trying to get greedy.)
Kennedy only asks this because it seems like the right thing to do, though it doesn’t exactly hurt that an unsettling number of random drug tests these days seem to end within that ominous Grant Sawyer boardroom, with our old pals Brady, Marnell and Aguilar handing down some form of penance between praises of Floyd Mayweather’s latest recipe for mozzarella chicken parm.
But alas, Kennedy has been rebuffed at every turn. And the curious thing is, the more he talks about it, the more his onlooking public seems to roll its collective eyes at the subject — ‘there goes old man Kennedy again, raving about steroids.’
It’s frustrating, he admits, but hey, “they’re not the ones getting hit in the head.”
“Have one of those people bitching about it go fight somebody who’s on performance enhancing drugs and have their shin put up against their head,” Kennedy says. “Spinning heel kick them. It’s a bunch of people behind a keyboard complaining about performance enhancing drugs and why we shouldn’t be whining about it. This isn’t baseball. We’re not hitting balls out of a park. We’re not kicking a soccer ball, we’re not riding a bicycle. We’re trying to knock each other out. It changes the use of PEDs a little bit.”
By now, Kennedy is resigned to his UFC 178 wishes falling on deaf ears, though that hasn’t helped to curb his disappointment.
On Saturday, Kennedy will fight Yoel Romero, an Adonis of a man who, at age 37, is still riding high in (or around) his athletic prime. For all intents and purposes, the winner of the contest is, at most, one fight away from a middleweight title shot, so the stakes here are real and more than a little palpable.
To be sure, Kennedy isn’t accusing Romero of any foul play. In fact, he kind of likes the guy. Romero has been nothing if not pleasant all week, plus such charges would be unfair at best, irresponsible at worst. Nonetheless Kennedy is acutely aware of what’s going on around him — how the increased frequency of outed cheaters continues to rise alongside the increased frequency of random testing, and how the naivety of a vocal few continues to dupe others into believing the sport of mixed martial arts is a clean one.
It may be cleaner, but we’re still getting there.
And that leads Kennedy to the subject of Vitor Belfort, the 37-year-old Brazilian phenom who defied both age and logic to rebuild his body into bronzed carving majestic enough to make Hercules blush. Belfort, his veins pulsing and muscles bulging, strung together three of the more violent knockouts of 2013, starred in the most predictable drug test failure of 2014, then was awarded a title shot in 2015, because hey, why not?
“Smaller and fatter” is how Kennedy now describes Belfort, now that the Brazilian is expected to be kept under the strict eye of the NAC.
“Guess what? Steroids work. They do,” says Kennedy. “You want to look like Vitor did two years ago? Use steroids. You want to perform like he did? Use steroids. They’re amazing. If you want to look like how Vitor looks now, don’t use steroids and then try to compete against guys like us that work hard.”
When it comes to middleweight’s foremost enigma, Kennedy obviously isn’t a fan. And as he notes, plenty of time rests between now and early-2015, when Belfort and UFC middleweight champion Chris Weidman are tentatively slated to tangle. So given that concern continues to frame the fight, with its thick wall of fog and TRT ghosts, Kennedy plans to take a page from the Ronaldo Souza playbook moving forward.
If he can leave Las Vegas a tad richer and a few rungs higher up the ladder by Sunday, the American hopes to take a month off, then launch into another fight camp… just in case the UFC has need of a back-up plan come New Year’s Day.
And truth be told, Kennedy likes his odds.
“30-percent chance [Belfort] doesn’t show up. 45-percent chance that he tests positive or gets hurt. So, 25-percent chance he shows up on fight night,” predicts Kennedy.
“If he makes it, that means he hasn’t been using because he’ll get tested, and he’ll get murdered. If he doesn’t make it, it’s because he realized that he has no chance without his magic juice.”
LAS VEGAS — Tim Kennedy is fighting in two days and hasn’t been drug tested. This is a problem for Tim Kennedy, because as he’ll be the first to tell you, Tim Kennedy could be pumped full of steroids this very second and you’d be none the wiser.
But that’s not to suggest Kennedy has aired his concern purely for public consumption. On several occasions he’s even attempted to cut out the middleman and call the Nevada Athletic Commission directly, informing them that he’d really, really enjoy it if they could send a stiff little inspector down to Greg Jackson’s, find the swashbuckling middleweight, open up a briefcase, and request a few dabs of urine. (Just a few. Kennedy isn’t trying to get greedy.)
Kennedy only asks this because it seems like the right thing to do, though it doesn’t exactly hurt that an unsettling number of random drug tests these days seem to end within that ominous Grant Sawyer boardroom, with our old pals Brady, Marnell and Aguilar handing down some form of penance between praises of Floyd Mayweather’s latest recipe for mozzarella chicken parm.
But alas, Kennedy has been rebuffed at every turn. And the curious thing is, the more he talks about it, the more his onlooking public seems to roll its collective eyes at the subject — ‘there goes old man Kennedy again, raving about steroids.’
It’s frustrating, he admits, but hey, “they’re not the ones getting hit in the head.”
“Have one of those people bitching about it go fight somebody who’s on performance enhancing drugs and have their shin put up against their head,” Kennedy says. “Spinning heel kick them. It’s a bunch of people behind a keyboard complaining about performance enhancing drugs and why we shouldn’t be whining about it. This isn’t baseball. We’re not hitting balls out of a park. We’re not kicking a soccer ball, we’re not riding a bicycle. We’re trying to knock each other out. It changes the use of PEDs a little bit.”
By now, Kennedy is resigned to his UFC 178 wishes falling on deaf ears, though that hasn’t helped to curb his disappointment.
On Saturday, Kennedy will fight Yoel Romero, an Adonis of a man who, at age 37, is still riding high in (or around) his athletic prime. For all intents and purposes, the winner of the contest is, at most, one fight away from a middleweight title shot, so the stakes here are real and more than a little palpable.
To be sure, Kennedy isn’t accusing Romero of any foul play. In fact, he kind of likes the guy. Romero has been nothing if not pleasant all week, plus such charges would be unfair at best, irresponsible at worst. Nonetheless Kennedy is acutely aware of what’s going on around him — how the increased frequency of outed cheaters continues to rise alongside the increased frequency of random testing, and how the naivety of a vocal few continues to dupe others into believing the sport of mixed martial arts is a clean one.
It may be cleaner, but we’re still getting there.
And that leads Kennedy to the subject of Vitor Belfort, the 37-year-old Brazilian phenom who defied both age and logic to rebuild his body into bronzed carving majestic enough to make Hercules blush. Belfort, his veins pulsing and muscles bulging, strung together three of the more violent knockouts of 2013, starred in the most predictable drug test failure of 2014, then was awarded a title shot in 2015, because hey, why not?
“Smaller and fatter” is how Kennedy now describes Belfort, now that the Brazilian is expected to be kept under the strict eye of the NAC.
“Guess what? Steroids work. They do,” says Kennedy. “You want to look like Vitor did two years ago? Use steroids. You want to perform like he did? Use steroids. They’re amazing. If you want to look like how Vitor looks now, don’t use steroids and then try to compete against guys like us that work hard.”
When it comes to middleweight’s foremost enigma, Kennedy obviously isn’t a fan. And as he notes, plenty of time rests between now and early-2015, when Belfort and UFC middleweight champion Chris Weidman are tentatively slated to tangle. So given that concern continues to frame the fight, with its thick wall of fog and TRT ghosts, Kennedy plans to take a page from the Ronaldo Souza playbook moving forward.
If he can leave Las Vegas a tad richer and a few rungs higher up the ladder by Sunday, the American hopes to take a month off, then launch into another fight camp… just in case the UFC has need of a back-up plan come New Year’s Day.
And truth be told, Kennedy likes his odds.
“30-percent chance [Belfort] doesn’t show up. 45-percent chance that he tests positive or gets hurt. So, 25-percent chance he shows up on fight night,” predicts Kennedy.
“If he makes it, that means he hasn’t been using because he’ll get tested, and he’ll get murdered. If he doesn’t make it, it’s because he realized that he has no chance without his magic juice.”
Don’t sleep on the UFC 178 card on Saturday from the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas. Demetrious “Mighty Mouse” Johnson’s defense of his UFC flyweight title vs. Chris Cariaso may not be the sexiest main event, but whatever the UFC 178 card lacks in the feature, it makes up for in its stellar […]
Don’t sleep on the UFC 178 card on Saturday from the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas. Demetrious “Mighty Mouse” Johnson’s defense of his UFC flyweight title vs. Chris Cariaso may not be the sexiest main event, but whatever the UFC 178 card lacks in the feature, it makes up for in its stellar […]
(And yes, that is how you formally enter a “not guilty” plea in Stockton. / Photo via NateDogg209)
According to an ESPN report, UFC welterweight Nick Diaz pleaded not guilty yesterday to eight DUI-related charges stemming from incidents in November 2013 and earlier this month. Diaz’s plea was entered in San Joaquin County Court in California, through his attorney Mandeep Singh Sidhu.* His next court appearance is slated for November 6th, less than three months before he’s scheduled to face Anderson Silva at UFC 183.
Diaz’s charges include DUI, DUI with an alcohol or drug level above .08, unsafe speed for prevailing conditions, failure to appear after written promise**, driving with a suspended license, and a resisting arrest charge that Diaz picked up while trying to vomit up his alcohol at the Lodi Police Department.
(And yes, that is how you formally enter a “not guilty” plea in Stockton. / Photo via NateDogg209)
According to an ESPN report, UFC welterweight Nick Diaz pleaded not guilty yesterday to eight DUI-related charges stemming from incidents in November 2013 and earlier this month. Diaz’s plea was entered in San Joaquin County Court in California, through his attorney Mandeep Singh Sidhu.* His next court appearance is slated for November 6th, less than three months before he’s scheduled to face Anderson Silva at UFC 183.
Diaz’s charges include DUI, DUI with an alcohol or drug level above .08, unsafe speed for prevailing conditions, failure to appear after written promise**, driving with a suspended license, and a resisting arrest charge that Diaz picked up while trying to vomit up his alcohol at the Lodi Police Department.
At the UFC 178 weigh-ins, all 22 fighters taking part in Saturday night’s UFC 178 fights will step on the scale Friday evening, and we’ll have the live video here at MMAFighting.com.In the main event, UFC flyweight champion Demetrious Johnson and C…
At the UFC 178 weigh-ins, all 22 fighters taking part in Saturday night’s UFC 178 fights will step on the scale Friday evening, and we’ll have the live video here at MMAFighting.com.
In the main event, UFC flyweight champion Demetrious Johnson and Chris Cariaso will have to make the flyweight limit of 125 pounds.
The UFC 178 weigh-in takes place at 7 p.m. ET at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nev., and the video is above.
Check out the UFC 178 weigh-in results below.
Main card (PPV at 10 p.m. ET) Demetrious Johnson (124.5) vs. Chris Cariaso (124.5) Donald Cerrone (155) vs. Eddie Alvarez (155) Dustin Poirier (145.5) vs. Conor McGregor (146) Tim Kennedy (185) vs. Yoel Romero (185) Cat Zingano (135) vs. Amanda Nunes (135) Undercard (FOX Sports 1 at 8…
Wanderlei Silva’s exit from mixed martial arts certainly hasn’t been graceful.
Prior to receiving a lifetime ban from competition by the Nevada Athletic Commission on Tuesday, Silva retired from the sport in a video alleging the mistreatment of the UFC’s fighters, among other grievances.
Wednesday, Silva took his issues with his former employer a leap further by bringing UFC president Dana White’s integrity into question over the removal of a judge during the Aug. 3 event in Macau, China.
“This same commission was taken to Macau for an event, and there were three judges around the Octagon,” Silva told PVT. “Suddenly, the owner of this promotion, who thinks he owns the sport, didn’t like the scores from one of the judges, and what did he do? He put (the judge) out of the arena. How can we be sure this guy is not controlling the results of the fights? How can we be sure this is not a circus?”
Speaking with media Thursday in Las Vegas, White chalked up much of Silva’s bad blood to timing.
“Lorenzo was just saying this morning — every f**king time you and I have ever seen Wanderlei Silva in our life he’s over the top ‘you guys are the best, you’ve built this sport, I don’t know where any of us would be if it wasn’t for you’,” Nothing but positive things to say. Then now he’s in this situation and he’s trying to build a smoke screen. I don’t blame him. I can’t say I wouldn’t do the same thing if I was in his position. It’s part of this business,” White said.
“Nobody has ever run from a drug test before. I didn’t see a lifetime ban coming. Nobody will let him fight. He’s in a very serious situation, but Wanderlei’s at the end of his career. He was going to fight one more fight and retire. It’s not like this is some 22 year old kid. He said, ‘I got one more fight boss, one more big fight’ and he was done. He also told me he thought we were the greatest guys in the world and we helped build the sport so maybe he didn’t mean that either.”
As for a spot in the UFC’s often revised Hall of Fame, Silva shouldn’t hold his breath.
“There’s going to be no Hall of Fame. The guy’s been Pete Rose’d,” White said. “There’s going to be no Hall of Fame offers.”
This Saturday night, the MGM grand garden arena in Las Vegas will play host to UFC 178. The show will be headlined by flyweight champion Demetrious Johnson defending his title against relatively unknown challenger Chris Cariaso. Although you would hardly know it from looking at a lot of the promotional material surrounding the event. The reason for this is Dublin’s own Conor McGregor. The McGregor promotional machine has caused enough of a buzz to overshadow the rest of the spectacular card. Ireland is united behind their favourite fighting son and the rest of the world is clambering to see what will happen. They want to see him win or they want to see the hype train come to an abrupt stop, either way, they want to see him. To truly become a megastar in the fight game, it never hurts to be a polarising figure.
Currently 3-0 in the UFC and coming off a first round knockout win in Dublin last July, Conor is facing what nobody denies will be his biggest test to date in Dustin Poirier. 8-2 in the UFC the American is good everywhere and always dangerous. At the media day stare downs on Thursday Conor and Dustin had to be separated by UFC president Dana White, the chest pumping will almost certainly continue until fight day. McGregor seems to revel in this sort of occasion where as Poirier appears to be letting Conor’s antics get to him. Fighters will often look for any mental edge in the lead up to a contest, round one to Ireland’s own.
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Wanderlei Silva’s exit from mixed martial arts certainly hasn’t been graceful.
Prior to receiving a lifetime ban from competition by the Nevada Athletic Commission on Tuesday, Silva retired from the sport in a video alleging the mistreatment of the UFC’s fighters, among other grievances.
Wednesday, Silva took his issues with his former employer a leap further by bringing UFC president Dana White’s integrity into question over the removal of a judge during the Aug. 3 event in Macau, China.
“This same commission was taken to Macau for an event, and there were three judges around the Octagon,” Silva told PVT. “Suddenly, the owner of this promotion, who thinks he owns the sport, didn’t like the scores from one of the judges, and what did he do? He put (the judge) out of the arena. How can we be sure this guy is not controlling the results of the fights? How can we be sure this is not a circus?”
Speaking with media Thursday in Las Vegas, White chalked up much of Silva’s bad blood to timing.
“Lorenzo was just saying this morning — every f**king time you and I have ever seen Wanderlei Silva in our life he’s over the top ‘you guys are the best, you’ve built this sport, I don’t know where any of us would be if it wasn’t for you’,” Nothing but positive things to say. Then now he’s in this situation and he’s trying to build a smoke screen. I don’t blame him. I can’t say I wouldn’t do the same thing if I was in his position. It’s part of this business,” White said.
“Nobody has ever run from a drug test before. I didn’t see a lifetime ban coming. Nobody will let him fight. He’s in a very serious situation, but Wanderlei’s at the end of his career. He was going to fight one more fight and retire. It’s not like this is some 22 year old kid. He said, ‘I got one more fight boss, one more big fight’ and he was done. He also told me he thought we were the greatest guys in the world and we helped build the sport so maybe he didn’t mean that either.”
As for a spot in the UFC’s often revised Hall of Fame, Silva shouldn’t hold his breath.
“There’s going to be no Hall of Fame. The guy’s been Pete Rose’d,” White said. “There’s going to be no Hall of Fame offers.”
This Saturday night, the MGM grand garden arena in Las Vegas will play host to UFC 178. The show will be headlined by flyweight champion Demetrious Johnson defending his title against relatively unknown challenger Chris Cariaso. Although you would hardly know it from looking at a lot of the promotional material surrounding the event. The reason for this is Dublin’s own Conor McGregor. The McGregor promotional machine has caused enough of a buzz to overshadow the rest of the spectacular card. Ireland is united behind their favourite fighting son and the rest of the world is clambering to see what will happen. They want to see him win or they want to see the hype train come to an abrupt stop, either way, they want to see him. To truly become a megastar in the fight game, it never hurts to be a polarising figure.
Currently 3-0 in the UFC and coming off a first round knockout win in Dublin last July, Conor is facing what nobody denies will be his biggest test to date in Dustin Poirier. 8-2 in the UFC the American is good everywhere and always dangerous. At the media day stare downs on Thursday Conor and Dustin had to be separated by UFC president Dana White, the chest pumping will almost certainly continue until fight day. McGregor seems to revel in this sort of occasion where as Poirier appears to be letting Conor’s antics get to him. Fighters will often look for any mental edge in the lead up to a contest, round one to Ireland’s own.
UFC 178 may be missing a Jon Jones vs. Daniel Cormier grudge match, but it still has Demetrious Johnson. As the promotion’s most active champion, one who is on his way to literally cleaning out the flyweight division, Mighty Mouse has done enough over the past few years to punch his ticket to join the […]
UFC 178 may be missing a Jon Jones vs. Daniel Cormier grudge match, but it still has Demetrious Johnson. As the promotion’s most active champion, one who is on his way to literally cleaning out the flyweight division, Mighty Mouse has done enough over the past few years to punch his ticket to join the […]
