Tag: Sports & Society

Will Alistair Overeem Ever Matter Again?

Getting busted for performance-enhancing drugs in MMA is kind of like getting caught in a misdemeanor lie by your wife. You’re going to be despised for a while, and you’re going to pay dearly, but after enough flowers, candy, sweetness…

Getting busted for performance-enhancing drugs in MMA is kind of like getting caught in a misdemeanor lie by your wife. You’re going to be despised for a while, and you’re going to pay dearly, but after enough flowers, candy, sweetness and, most importantly time, all is forgiven.  

Alistair Overeem is the latest villain in the ongoing PED melodrama.  

As you’ll recall, the gargantuan Dutchman was recently nailed for having a testosterone/epitestosterone (T/E) level of 14:1, which is well above the generous 6:1 ratio allowed by the Nevada State Athletic Commission. He was booted from the UFC 146 main event title fight and despised the world over. 

Overeem deserves every bit of criticism levied his way, but is he really that different from the dozens of other fighters who’ve popped hot for banned substances over the years? 

Consider this timeline of fighters who’ve failed drug tests put together by CagePotato. 

There are some interesting names on that list, even the Godfather of the UFC, Royce Gracie.  

That’s right, Royce popped hot after finally avenging his loss to Kazushi Sakuraba in 2007. He never fought in MMA again, but Gracie’s legacy is still quite intact. It was stained only momentarily. Rarely do you ever hear the word “steroid” used in the same sentence as “Royce Gracie” any longer. 

Chael Sonnen was nailed for testosterone following his loss to Anderson Silva at UFC 117, and miraculously had an even higher T/E level of 17:1. Where is he now? Training for another shot at the title. 

The list is long and distinguished, and what it indicates is that we either don’t really care much about fighters using PEDs, or we have pathetically short memories.

Overeem’s case may be a bit different, but only in the sense that he’s grown so massive in the past few years that he seemed to be dangling his usage right in front of our eyes, taunting the system to catch him—kind of like a killer who sends clues of his crimes to the police.  

Many of the fighters who’ve failed drug tests didn’t really look much different than they always have. Overeem got big, real big, and that physical transformation is how we correlate PEDs. There has long been speculation of Overeem’s misdeeds. The running joke in the MMA community is the “horsemeat diet” that allowed Overeem to transform from a lanky light heavyweight to a He-Man action figure in just a few years.  

Until failing his post-UFC 146 press conference drug test, though, it was all nothing more than conjecture.

Overeem didn’t help that speculation when he skipped out on a drug test last year, claiming he had to go to Holland to care for his sick mother. Maybe that was legit, but with all the assumption, and now the proof to back it up, there’s evidence to cast a justifiable shadow on the past few years of his career.

However, just like every other fighter who failed a drug test, Overeem will eventually be forgiven his transgressions. And if the UFC doesn’t cut Overeem, it’ll likely keep him out of the public eye for a while.

This issue will undoubtedly come up again when he fights next, but with every passing fight it will come up less and less, until—if history is any indication—it just kind of fades away.

Read more MMA news on BleacherReport.com

UFC Attorney Says Fans Who Stream UFC PPVs Are Not Actually Fans at All

The UFC is taking a new tact in the war against pay-per-view piracy.Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter reported earlier this week that the UFC had obtained email addresses, usernames and IP addresses of users who had illegally streamed e…

The UFC is taking a new tact in the war against pay-per-view piracy.

Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter reported earlier this week that the UFC had obtained email addresses, usernames and IP addresses of users who had illegally streamed events through the website GreenFeedz.com.

The UFC has spent plenty of time and money going after websites that illegally stream UFC events, and they’ve had plenty of success in doing so. But this marks the first time that the promotion has targeted individual users who stream events.

Today, Zuffa chief counsel Lawrence Epstein had some strong words for fans who would rather stream the event illegally than pay for it. Epstein spoke to MMAjunkie.com:

We love our fans, and we’ve got some of the greatest fans in the world, and all the success we’ve had with the UFC is directly attributable to those fans. But people that steal our stuff – they’re not our fans. 

If you’re a huge [Georges St-Pierre] fan, would you steal from him? I don’t think so. So we love our fans, we respect our fans, but people who steal from us, frankly, aren’t our fans.

Epstein makes a valid point here. It’s easy to sit back and say, “Well, the UFC makes plenty of money off of these events, so it won’t hurt them at all if I watch a stream instead of buying this event.”

And that’s partially true, because the UFC does indeed make plenty of money from these events.

But Epstein’s reference to St-Pierre is a wise one. GSP, like many other top-level UFC superstars, earns a portion of his paycheck from the sales of pay-per-view events. He earns a percentage of each individual pay-per-view buy—reportedly as high as five percent, depending on the actual numbers the event draws. 

When you stream a pay-per-view, you’re directly taking money from the pockets of a fighter you proclaim to be a fan of. And sure, St-Pierre is a very rich man, and the two or three bucks he earns from your purchase isn’t going to affect him much. 

But that’s not the point, is it? The point is that you’re intentionally stealing from a fighter and a man that you proclaim to be a fan of. 

That doesn’t seem like a very good way to express your fandom.

Read more MMA news on BleacherReport.com

UFC Imperial Strategy: Buy Them Out, Then Kill Them Softly

The UFC Empire, in its quest for global domination, has effectively caused the expiration of one colony and the evisceration of another. One’s from another continent across the Pacific Ocean, the other more accessible in Northern California from …

The UFC Empire, in its quest for global domination, has effectively caused the expiration of one colony and the evisceration of another. One’s from another continent across the Pacific Ocean, the other more accessible in Northern California from UFC’s home base in Las Vegas.

In the first quarter of 2007, the MMA world—with the exception of the legendary Japanese promotion’s head honchos and a couple of hard-nosed sports journalists—was surprised to find out that Pride Fighting Championships was hanging on life support.

In March of the aforementioned year, Zuffa, UFC’s parent company, presumably came to the rescue. Trumping with triumphalism, it bought Pride FC out, with what many thought for the altruistic goal of resuscitating its erstwhile leading competitor.

It didn’t take long for the excited but equally apprehensive fight fans to realize that Zuffa did enter the intensive care unit, only to milk Pride FC of its remaining top fighters before pulling out its life-support instruments. Then finally throwing its corpse to memory for all eternity.

By October 2007, Pride’s Japanese staff was laid off, officially ending the organization’s business of MMA promotion. (If ever Pride FC miraculously rises from its tomb someday, Lazarus-like—complete with fireworks and entrance music—then we’ll surely know about it.)

The demise of Pride FC may be due to a multitude of factors; some may not be Zuffa’s fault at all. Perhaps UFC president Dana White was right in saying then about his Japanese counterparts what has become his catchphrase now regarding M-1 Global’s, “It’s hard to do business with them.”

But in light of all the developments since Zuffa purchased Strikeforce, its closest competitor at home in the US, one can’t help but think that the sorry fate of Pride FC has been part of a malevolent imperialist master plan all along: Buy ‘em out then kill ‘em softly.

Here are excerpts from the excellent slideshow “Business as Usual?: 10 Major Events in the Year Since Zuffa Bought Strikeforce” of Bleacher Report MMA lead writer Jonathan Snowden:

In the most transparent bit of double dealing, wink, wink, tomfoolery, Alistair Overeem is “released” by Strikeforce after an injury forces him to delay the Heavyweight Grand Prix.

Overeem, of course, almost immediately signed with the UFC and headlined a December card against Brock Lesnar. […]

Dan Henderson, the MMA legend who abandoned the UFC for a shot at superstardom in Strikeforce, returned to the loving embrace of UFC President Dana White. […]

Dana White announced that the [heavyweight] division was on life support. After the Grand Prix and “one more fight,” the Strikeforce heavyweights would be no more.

Isn’t it eerie how the long shadow of Pride FC—until now projected from the shining light of its former fighters—was, until recently, still sprawled all over Strikeforce? (Heavyweight Josh Barnett, another Pride FC veteran, remains there, though.)

Now, Strikeforce is desperately clinging on its last threads: Ronda Rousey and Miesha Tate, and, representing the less beautiful half of our species, Barnett and Daniel Cormier.

In hindsight, Pride FC’s appears to be an execution by musketry, though a considerable waiting period lapsed before the act of murder was finally consummated. Strikeforce’s is a slower death by garrote vil—the medieval instrument of choice used to subject unlucky victims to guillotine choke, with the coldest disregard for even the healthiest tapout.  

Making analogic examples from the Philippines’ Spanish colonial history, Pride FC suffered the same death of Jose Rizal, while Strikeforce is currently undergoing what befell the three martyr-priests collectively immortalized as Gomburza.

The abovementioned martyrs underwent their respective mock trials before meeting their Maker. In the same way, Pride FC suffered, and Strikeforce suffers, from a mockery of good faith with regard to their perpetuation in the hands of their common new master, the UFC.

Here’s to the glory that was Pride FC and the grand challenge that was Strikeforce.

Read more MMA news on BleacherReport.com

MMA: It’s Time to End War Comparisons in Fighting

Seriously, there’s a limit to how far we all should go just to talk about awesome fights, so let’s cut the “war” talk out already.We easily have the ability to tell others to not be surprised if one of two men involved in a fight cuts the other open, j…

Seriously, there’s a limit to how far we all should go just to talk about awesome fights, so let’s cut the “war” talk out already.

We easily have the ability to tell others to not be surprised if one of two men involved in a fight cuts the other open, just as we all have the ability to say a fight will be a back-and-forth affair or that a fight might be a barn-burner, or even that a fight will be something from out of a video game and a bout that ranks among the the most legendary bouts in the history of the sport.

We have the ability to describe the bout in any way possible, and yet we decide to play the war card.

So a cage fight is war, eh?

Y’all know what a war is, yes?

Well, Tim Kennedy might be able to shine a better light on that, as would Brian Stann as far as the mental aspect of it all, but what relevance does the grind of preparing for a sanctioned MMA bout have to the mind-scarring reality of what a war is?

Sure, the action can be explosive and the offensive attack of a fighter can cause serious damage in more ways that one, with the damage sometimes resulting in something more serious than what a simple surgery could fix, but the only bullets that get fired in MMA are the verbal bullets fired back and forth between fighters in order to hype up their fights.

Also, consider that the trash-talk is sometimes more brutal than the actual fight itself, whereas the heat of war often is too graphic to even condense into words or an article.

Simply put, war’s something that a group of men and women experience every day around the world so that people like you and I can even talk about mixed martial arts.

War is something the armed forces see and talk about on the daily, and they put themselves through a good ordeal in order to train their bodies and minds for what may lie ahead on the battlegrounds of the world.

However, comparing something like war to MMA, which only feel like war but is merely just a competitive sport that challenges a person physically and mentally, is a trend that is fading out at a rapid rate. While MMA fighters clearly put themselves through some serious training in order to stay ready physically and mentally inside of a fight, they’re in MMA competition as opposed to armed combat, and, if anything, MMA is at war with those in the world that maintain that it cannot be expected to last long as a legitimate sport.

To put a bottom line on it, MMA and war will never be one in the same, no matter how many times we try to draw comparisons between the two. Cage fights might be fought like wars, but they don’t have the same long-term consequences as wars, so it seems funny to try and connect the two.

Trust the cliche if you so choose, but allow this writer to leave you with this piece and send this issue to the cemetery with a left head kick and the reminder that 2012 has many MMA classics in store, but none of them should be expected to take lives as much as they can be predicted as possibly changing lives in the MMA world and the landscape of MMA as we know it.

Read more MMA news on BleacherReport.com

MMA: It’s Time to End War Comparisons in Fighting

Seriously, there’s a limit to how far we all should go just to talk about awesome fights, so let’s cut the “war” talk out already.We easily have the ability to tell others to not be surprised if one of two men involved in a fight cuts the other open, j…

Seriously, there’s a limit to how far we all should go just to talk about awesome fights, so let’s cut the “war” talk out already.

We easily have the ability to tell others to not be surprised if one of two men involved in a fight cuts the other open, just as we all have the ability to say a fight will be a back-and-forth affair or that a fight might be a barn-burner, or even that a fight will be something from out of a video game and a bout that ranks among the the most legendary bouts in the history of the sport.

We have the ability to describe the bout in any way possible, and yet we decide to play the war card.

So a cage fight is war, eh?

Y’all know what a war is, yes?

Well, Tim Kennedy might be able to shine a better light on that, as would Brian Stann as far as the mental aspect of it all, but what relevance does the grind of preparing for a sanctioned MMA bout have to the mind-scarring reality of what a war is?

Sure, the action can be explosive and the offensive attack of a fighter can cause serious damage in more ways that one, with the damage sometimes resulting in something more serious than what a simple surgery could fix, but the only bullets that get fired in MMA are the verbal bullets fired back and forth between fighters in order to hype up their fights.

Also, consider that the trash-talk is sometimes more brutal than the actual fight itself, whereas the heat of war often is too graphic to even condense into words or an article.

Simply put, war’s something that a group of men and women experience every day around the world so that people like you and I can even talk about mixed martial arts.

War is something the armed forces see and talk about on the daily, and they put themselves through a good ordeal in order to train their bodies and minds for what may lie ahead on the battlegrounds of the world.

However, comparing something like war to MMA, which only feel like war but is merely just a competitive sport that challenges a person physically and mentally, is a trend that is fading out at a rapid rate. While MMA fighters clearly put themselves through some serious training in order to stay ready physically and mentally inside of a fight, they’re in MMA competition as opposed to armed combat, and, if anything, MMA is at war with those in the world that maintain that it cannot be expected to last long as a legitimate sport.

To put a bottom line on it, MMA and war will never be one in the same, no matter how many times we try to draw comparisons between the two. Cage fights might be fought like wars, but they don’t have the same long-term consequences as wars, so it seems funny to try and connect the two.

Trust the cliche if you so choose, but allow this writer to leave you with this piece and send this issue to the cemetery with a left head kick and the reminder that 2012 has many MMA classics in store, but none of them should be expected to take lives as much as they can be predicted as possibly changing lives in the MMA world and the landscape of MMA as we know it.

Read more MMA news on BleacherReport.com

MMA: Will the Fickleness of the Fans Ultimately Bring the UFC and MMA Down?

The sport of mixed martial arts is noted for many things such as being the fastest growing sport in the world, being the purest combat sport on the planet, demanding the highest level of athleticism from it’s participants…and having perhaps the most …

The sport of mixed martial arts is noted for many things such as being the fastest growing sport in the world, being the purest combat sport on the planet, demanding the highest level of athleticism from it’s participants…and having perhaps the most notoriously difficult to please fans in sports.

When an event disappoints, MMA fans will light many an Internet forum ablaze with complaints and criticisms faster than any other group of fans.

This even happens if only the main event is bad. Such is the case with Strikeforce: Overeem vs. Werdum, a fight card in which many of the fights were packed with solid action but the main event was seen as a disappointment. Thus, the entire event was seen by many fans as lackluster even though a majority of the fights were good.

Unfortunately, this trend is nothing new. There almost always seems to be complaints coming from the fans about one thing or another.

This inclination towards misery and negativity is commonly just written off as people being spoiled and is given little more than a sigh before attention is moved elsewhere. This stance on the constantly changing (although often only changing between varying negative extremes) has its merits but also its flaws.

First, finicky fans shouldn’t always be taken seriously; people will complain about anything and everything.

Second, many fans have selective memories and only remember the bad about an event. Does anyone remember UFC 112 for anything but the Anderson Silva-Demian Maia fiasco?

However, the general opinion(s) of the fans cannot be wholly discounted, for it is their wallets that are responsible for keeping the sport alive and growing.

Therefore, if the fans are consistently bored and become disillusioned with the sport and the UFC ignores them, the organization and the sport could be brought down. Case in point: many professional sports organizations have had to alter their rules to make for a more exciting contest.

Will the UFC have to do this? Only time will tell, although many fans are becoming concerned with the prevalence of “fighting not to lose,” a fighting style which UFC welterweight champion Georges St-Pierre is acrimoniously accused of employing.

An interesting point to note is that the UFC under Zuffa ownership has “grown up” in the age of the Internet (as did many of its fans). It’s possible that the fickleness comes from living in a quick-fix/instant-oatmeal society in which people want more for their time and money, and they aren’t willing to wait for it. Maybe most fans expect every main event—or even every fight—to be Forrest Griffin-Stephan Bonnar all over again?

So will the fickleness of the fans be the sport’s downfall? Probably not. Many of the fan’s complaints are bombastic, and sometimes ignorant. In addition, the fans (as well as people in general these days, does anyone remember the BP oil spill anymore?) have a short memory regarding many things. While people will remember UFC 112 for being bad, the sour taste in their mouths will likely have dissipated when it’s time pay up for the next event.

Nevertheless, the fans cannot be completely disregarded as high-maintenance complainers. If enough fans fall out of love with the sport, MMA could drop off the face of the sports world as soon as it appeared.

Read more MMA news on BleacherReport.com