Tag: Dana White

MMA News: Chael Sonnen Sidelined Indefinitely by the CSAC

UFC middleweight contender Chael Sonnen must have broken a few mirrors while walking under ladders and in front of a pack of black cats. According to Steve Cofield of Yahoo Sports, the California State Athletic Commission has sidelined Sonnen indefinit…

UFC middleweight contender Chael Sonnen must have broken a few mirrors while walking under ladders and in front of a pack of black cats.

According to Steve Cofield of Yahoo Sports, the California State Athletic Commission has sidelined Sonnen indefinitely due to him pleading guilty on January 3, 2011 to the charge of money laundering in which Sonnen was sentenced to 24 months of probation, fined $10,000, lost his real estate license in Oregon and is now labeled a felon.

Trent Reinsmith of Bleach Report said that the CSAC now claims they made an error in the ruling.

“According to a press release from the CSAC, Sonnen will be free to apply for licensing after his California license expires on June 29, 2011,” said Trent.

However, there is still no guarantee that they will grant Sonnen his license renewal. 

Sonnen was suspended by the CSAC when he tested positive for high levels of testosterone after his title fight with Anderson Silva, in August of 2010.

The dispute over the failed drug test remained as Sonnen claims that he informed the commission of his medically diagnosed, low-testosterone condition called hypogonadism, which required him to inject testosterone twice a week.

He appealed his suspension on the grounds that his medical condition is legitimate and the commission chose to reduce the suspension from one year to six months.

His suspension officially ended on March 2, 2011.

Sonnen, attempted to re-apply for his license to fight but, according to Wikipedia, “California State Executive Director George Dodd on May 10, 2011, released a statement that Sonnen had been placed on an indefinite administrative suspension in California, and would have to appear before the California State Athletic Commission to appeal the decision.

“Dodd added that it was his understanding that the Nevada State Athletic Commission would be honoring California’s suspension of Sonnen.”

As expected, UFC President, Dana White is not pleased with the commission’s decision and voiced his opinion to Heavy MMA.

“I’m pretty bummed out about the Chael Sonnen thing and the way that the whole thing was handled. You know, this guy…I don’t know if there’s ever been a penalty laid down, I mean Tyson, I think when Tyson bit the ear, Tyson got a year. Um…it’s pretty crazy.”

White went on to say, “It’s not that he’d have to retire, but right now was his opportunity. This kid had the opportunity to coach The Ultimate Fighter. He had the opportunity to get a big fight set up. Should he win that fight, everybody knows what happened with Anderson Silva. This was a key moment in this kid’s career.”

How this suspension will affect Sonnen’s mindset or career has yet to be determined.

We can only hope that things will work out in his favor and that we will see him back in the Octagon sooner than later.

Read more MMA news on BleacherReport.com

Dana White Calls GSP vs. Diaz Reports ‘Bullshit’, Sheds a Tear for Chael Sonnen

<a href=”http://www.heavy.com/?p=202383″ mce_href=”http://www.heavy.com/?p=202383″>Watch this video on Heavy.com</a>
(Props: Heavy.com)

Despite recent rumors that Georges St. Pierre and Nick Diaz are slated to face off at UFC 140 — and were the most likely candidates to coach the next season of The Ultimate Fighter — UFC president Dana White wants to make it clear that it ain’t happening. As he tells travel-size interviewer Megan Olivi in a new interview (quotes via FightOpinion):

“That fight is not a done deal and I guarantee you that those two will not be coaches, not even close. All this stuff that’s out there about that fight and the meeting that we had here is all bullshit.”

Asked if GSP vs. Diaz would be happening at the UFC’s return to Montreal in December, DW responded with a simple “no.” Of course, this wouldn’t be the first time that the UFC has denied a report just so they could announce it themselves later — but at the very least, relying on Nick Diaz to coach TUF for an entire season seems like way too much to ask, when he can’t even get through an eight-minute interview without threatening to slap somebody.


(Props: Heavy.com)

Despite recent rumors that Georges St. Pierre and Nick Diaz are slated to face off at UFC 140 — and were the most likely candidates to coach the next season of The Ultimate Fighter — UFC president Dana White wants to make it clear that it ain’t happening. As he tells travel-size interviewer Megan Olivi in a new interview (quotes via FightOpinion):

“That fight is not a done deal and I guarantee you that those two will not be coaches, not even close. All this stuff that’s out there about that fight and the meeting that we had here is all bullshit.”

Asked if GSP vs. Diaz would be happening at the UFC’s return to Montreal in December, DW responded with a simple “no.” Of course, this wouldn’t be the first time that the UFC has denied a report just so they could announce it themselves later — but at the very least, relying on Nick Diaz to coach TUF for an entire season seems like way too much to ask, when he can’t even get through an eight-minute interview without threatening to slap somebody.

Later in the interview, Dana shared his thoughts on Chael Sonnen, whose livelihood was recently taken away when the California State Athletic Commission upheld his indefinite suspension:

MEGAN OLIVI: “All right, let’s talk about Chael Sonnen. What’s his status in the UFC right now?”

DANA WHITE: “I’m pretty bummed out about the Chael Sonnen thing and the way that the whole thing was handled. You know, this guy… I don’t know if there’s ever been a penalty laid down, I mean Tyson, I think when Tyson bit the ear, Tyson got a year. Um… it’s pretty crazy.”

MEGAN OLIVI: “You know, he said that you told him if he can’t licensed, he has to retire. Is there any truth to that?”

DANA WHITE: “Um… listen, it’s not that he’d have to retire, but right now was his opportunity. This kid had the opportunity to coach The Ultimate Fighter, he had the opportunity to get a big fight set up, should he win that fight… everybody knows what happened with Anderson Silva, this was a key moment in this kid’s career and me, personally, you know, you’ve heard me say it for the last almost 11 years, we always support whatever the athletic commission says… This kid got, this kid got it stuck to him, man. He paid his dues in every way, shape and form and, uh… I think he’s been treated a bit unfairly.”

Allow us to state the obvious: Chael Sonnen was just caught in another lie. As he said during his last hearing: “If I don’t get my license today I’m effectively retired. That came from the boss, Dana White.” Well, not exactly, unless you have a very loose definition of “effectively retired.” Because it sounds like White really wants Sonnen competing again Yes, despite Chael’s lies about his unapproved testosterone therapy, and despite his conviction for mortgage fraud, White wants him on the team. We feel some sympathy for Sonnen missing out on such huge career opportunities, but to say that he’s “paid his dues in every way, shape and form” still seems like an exaggeration at this point.

Dana White Has a Plan ‘B’ If Strikeforce Doesn’t Work Out Under the Zuffa Banner

1 by Zuffaforce

Dana White was interviewed by Forbes $ports Money while he was in Toronto for UFC 129 last month and as always the UFC president had a lot to say.

Among other items, The Baldfather touched on some hot button topics like the UFC’s plans for Strikeforce, whether or not women’s MMA will survive the merger and what prompted the minority stake sale of 10 percent of the company to Flash Entertainment.

Check out the transcription of some of the key quotes from the show after the jump.


1 by Zuffaforce

Dana White was interviewed by Forbes $ports Money while he was in Toronto for UFC 129 last month and as always the UFC president had a lot to say.

Among other items, The Baldfather touched on some hot button topics like the UFC’s plans for Strikeforce, whether or not women’s MMA will survive the merger and what prompted the minority stake sale of 10 percent of the company to Flash Entertainment.

Here’s what White had to say:

About why the UFC purchased Strikeforce:

“Well, Strikeforce was for sale. The funny thing about the reputation that we have is that we’re anti-competition, which couldn’t be further from the truth. But the reality is, as we continue to expand and grow, we do need more fighters and we love the content. We need more content. The one thing that these guys have who do it right, and the ones that we usually end up buying, is they have a great library, they have a stable of fighters and if they have a name and a television deal like Strikeforce did, that’s not a bad thing either.”

About whether or not he sees Strikeforce existing separately from the UFC for the long term:

“The thing with Strikeforce is, when we acquired them they have a deal with Showtime. We’re working with Showtime now, which I’ve had a very rocky relationship with, but Lorenzo is working with them right now, and we’re gonna try to run this thing separately and we’ll see how it goes.We’ll see if we can pull this thing off and make it happen. If it didn’t happen, the worst case scenario that happens if we own Strikeforce is these guys roll over into the UFC.”

About whether or not he feels the the skill level of athletes will continue to evolve as fast as it has:

“Yeah, well that’s our thing. The great thing about this sport is mixed martial arts is the new martial art. When you and I were growing up, parents would put you in karate or tae kwon do and stuff like that. Kids are taking mixed martial arts. This is what women, children, businessmen, guys who want to fight — this is what they train in and not just here, but all over the world. I’m in a position right now where I can get a fighter from anywhere in the world right now. As this thing continues to grow and progress, guys that would have played baseball, basketball, football — guys who are real athletes — you’re going to see a lot of them becoming mixed martial artists.”

About whether or not women’s MMA has a future under th Zuffa banner:

“There’s this big misconception out there about me that I don’t like women’s fighting and everything else. I have no problem with women’s fighting. The problem I have right now — and it was a problem with boxing and it’s a problem with MMA right now — is that you don’t have enough women who are good enough to create an entire division. So what you get are a couple of women who are very good and a lot of women that really aren’t, and I don’t like lopsided fights, especially with women. So as this sport continues to grow, if there are more and more women where you can actually create an entire division with a lot of talented women, I’m all about it.”

About why Zuffa decided to part with a 10 percent share of the company to Abu Dhabi-based Flash Entertainment:

“Everybody was coming at us and wanted to either buy or buy into it and we didn’t need the money. There was no added value in bringing in any of these guys, so it didn’t make sense. But when we hooked up with Flash Entertainment from Abu Dhabi, these guys are the largest investment firm in the world. Not only do they have the capital, but these guys have relationships. This was more of a strategic move for us. These guys were good business partners to get in, especially as we continue to expand. Can we fly over there and set up meetings in China? I don’t know. Maybe we can do it. With these guys we can.”

UFC 130 Fight Card: MMA’s Problem with the Ten Point Must System

After watching MMA  as a dedicated fan for six years now, a pattern has emerged time and time again that frustrates both the fighters and the fans.A series of bad decisions by judges have finally left me fed up with the ten point must system in mi…

After watching MMA  as a dedicated fan for six years now, a pattern has emerged time and time again that frustrates both the fighters and the fans.

A series of bad decisions by judges have finally left me fed up with the ten point must system in mixed martial arts. For the most part, the system works in boxing when there are only punches to consider, but in mixed martial arts it causes problems, confusion and sometimes anger.

There have been several MMA results in the last year that led me to this position. The most glaring instance was the matchup between Nam Phan and Leonard Garcia at the Ultimate Fighter 12 finale in December. Phan clearly won the fight, yet somehow lost on a split decision. There have been other results where the unfairness of the ten point system was even more apparent. Joe Warren’s fight with Marco Galvao could easily have gone to Galvao. Diego Sanchez probably should have lost his last bout to Martin Kampmann, and Kampmann was also snubbed of a potential win last October when he lost via decision to Jake Shields.

UFC President Dana White always says to never leave it in the hands of the judges. It is true that the finish makes mixed martial arts more exciting, but why should guys fear the scorecards? The system should work, but it no longer does. Some have suggested changes such as a decimal system or a half point system, but nothing has happened.

I see there being two major problems. The first major problem is the ten point must system itself, which needs to be changed to prevent unnecessary bad decisions and draws. The second major problem is with the judges themselves.

The ten point must system needs to be changed, and no one seems to have the “right” answer. Why not let a council of mixed martial arts professionals decide? I propose starting a council of maybe 1,000 or so individuals, a group of trainers, fighters, writers and executives.

We can call it the MMA World Council, and call a yearly meeting similar to the UFC fighter summit where these informed individuals vote on rule changes to the unified rules of MMA. They could  find a better solution to scoring bouts than the ten point must system that mixed martial arts adopted from boxing years ago.

The group of MMA experts and advocates could use democratic principles to propose changes, and vote on those changes. The democratic approach of letting everyone vote is not only fair, but could breed partnership between MMA organizations. Rather than competing against one another, the members could work together to help further the sport as a whole.

The second major problem is with the judges. As it stands, judges are simply not informed well enough on the ins and outs of MMA fighting. The UFC is bringing in monitors for UFC 130 and beyond, but the judge can choose to use them or to ignore them entirely. I think the real problem is that the judges need to know more about MMA, its multi-faceted game and how to decide who is really winning.

Either the existing judges must be better educated about the sport, or the UFC, Strikeforce, Bellator and others must find new judges. These groups need to hire former fighters and referees to judge until the average judges learn that a takedown means nothing when the other guy pops right back up and delivers a punch, or that a guy rushing ahead and getting picked apart shouldn’t be awarded points just for moving forward.

Monitors are a baby step in the right direction, but the sport can’t always hide behind the mantra of “never leave it in the hands of the judges.” At some point we have to start making these people accountable for what they put on their cards, and possibly monitor them to make sure they’re competent enough in MMA to be a judge in the first place. I hope that the use of monitors is the first step of many to improving the ten point must problem that’s currently hurting mixed martial arts all across the board.

Read more MMA news on BleacherReport.com

UFC 130: Who’s on the Hot Seat?

It really doesn’t seem like we have a UFC pay-per-view coming up in less than a week. The lack of a true main event has taken a lot of fans’ interest away from this card. No disrespect to Rampage Jackson, but anyone would have a difficult time trying t…

It really doesn’t seem like we have a UFC pay-per-view coming up in less than a week. The lack of a true main event has taken a lot of fans’ interest away from this card.

No disrespect to Rampage Jackson, but anyone would have a difficult time trying to sell a main event when their opponent is Matt Hamill. The injuries suffered by UFC Lightweight Champion Frankie Edgar and his opponent Gray Maynard really sucked the life out of this event.

Frank Mir and to some extent Roy Nelson are two fighters that can help draw interest, but because they are fighting one another and there is nothing but mutual respect between the two men, the UFC doesn’t have too much to hype this fight with.

So now that we have established the fact this card will sell very few pay-per-views, we can go over what fighters could possibly lose their job with a loss this Saturday night.

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UFC 130: Is Brian Stann Facing Lesser Competition Against Jorge Santiago?

UFC 130: Rampage vs. Hamill is only four days away as it is scheduled to take place on May 28, 2011, at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas this Saturday night. With the originally scheduled rubber match between UFC lightweight champion Frankie Edg…

UFC 130: Rampage vs. Hamill is only four days away as it is scheduled to take place on May 28, 2011, at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas this Saturday night.

With the originally scheduled rubber match between UFC lightweight champion Frankie Edgar and Gray Maynard canceled due to injuries sustained by both fighters during training, the co-main event between Quinton Jackson and Matt Hamill has been pushed up to the main event, which still leaves us with a very impressive undercard.

One of the more controversial undercard fights and one of my personal favorite matchups is Brian Stann vs. former UFC fighter, Jorge Santiago.

Stann, the former U.S. Marine Captain whose military actions have been noted by President Bush, is coming off of a huge KO victory over UFC middleweight, Chris Leben.

While many big names were being thrown around as possible next opponents for Stann, one of which was Wanderlei Silva, the UFC matchmaker, Joe Silva and UFC President, Dana White chose an unlikely opponent to face Stann at UFC 130.

Enter former Strikeforce middleweight champ, former Sengoku middleweight champ, Sherdog’s Fight of the Year winner and American Top Team disciple and BJJ black belt, Jorge Santiago.

Some fans and fighters feel that with this being Santiago’s first fight in the UFC, Stann should have been given the opportunity to face a better-known opponent from the UFC’s crème de la crème middleweight fighters.

Tim Kennedy, former U.S. Army Ranger and Special Forces sniper turned MMA fighter, who also fights for Strikeforce, verbally expressed his disdain for the choice of Stann’s UFC 130 opponent to Bloody Elbow in an exclusive interview.

“And then we’ll take Brian Stann, a Silver Medal recipient, a war hero, a Marine captain. He’s had like 10 fights under the Zuffa banner between the WEC and the UFC but he’s fighting a newcomer to the promotion in Jorge Santiago. It doesn’t make any sense. Let’s reward the guys who deserve rewarding,” Kennedy said.

“The one’s that fight fair, the one’s that work hard, the one’s that do the right thing and punish the guys that say the wrong things, who do the wrong things, that fight unfairly,” he said.

Everyone is entitled to their opinion, but perhaps Kennedy’s idea of Stann having an unfair matchup with Santiago because he’s a “newcomer” in the UFC is a bit unfair itself.

In fact, Santiago has fought before in the UFC, three times in 2006, going 1-for-3 in his fights, losing to Chris Leben and Alan Belcher.

Since losing to Belcher, Santiago has not only won, but finished 11 of his 12 fights and avenged his only loss during that time, winning by decision against Mamed Khalidov.

Santiago is also accustomed to fighting in and winning MMA tournaments, where contestants fight multiple opponents in the same day.

I think it’s safe to say that his cardio is up to par and it could play an important role in his fight with Stann.

Boasting a professional record of 23-8 with 31 professional fights, Santiago is by no means a “newcomer,” neither to the UFC or MMA.

However, five of his losses have come by KO or TKO and it’s no secret that Stann has knockout power, seeing as he crippled the “Crippler” at UFC 125: Resolution.

With Santiago, being the more experienced fighter and finishing all but one of his last 12 fights, and Stann, being hungry and coming off of a KO win, this bout has Fight of the Night or Knockout of the Night written all over it; it could even be a potential Submission of the Night candidate.

However you see this matchup, come fight night these two athletes are coming not just to fight, but to win.

The UFC will begin at its new time of 9 P.M. EST/6 P.M. PT.

The new time change began at UFC 129 and will continue indefinitely.

Check back with BleacheRreport.com/MMA for UFC 130: Rampage vs. Hamill fight card news and updates.

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