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UFC 146: Alistair Overeem’s Manager Has Explanation for Positive Drug Test

UFC 146 is rapidly approaching and the question of who will headline the main event in a title fight with Junior dos Santos is still up in the air.Alistair Overeem’s excessive testosterone levels brought us here and his team is very confident that he w…

UFC 146 is rapidly approaching and the question of who will headline the main event in a title fight with Junior dos Santos is still up in the air.

Alistair Overeem‘s excessive testosterone levels brought us here and his team is very confident that he will be able to fight and get licensed for the May 26th event.

Now, Overeem’s manager Glenn Robinson spoke to Inside MMA‘s Ron Kruck about the whole Overeem debacle.

“I spoke with Glenn Robinson, manager of Overeem and he says he is very respectful and is hopeful that he will be granted his license and the entire team is very confident that he will be facing Junior dos Santos come May 26th” said Kruck. “Now Robinson wanted to make it very clear that despite other reports, Overeem did not test high for testosterone, but rather his testosterone to epitestosterone was off and he has a reasonable explanation to why that is, which he will present to the commission next Tuesday.”

Overeem can now apply for a license despite failing his pre-fight drug test and, according to the Nevada Athletic Commission’s Keith Kizer, Overeem has done so and will try to present his case to the NSAC.

“Kizer confirmed several things. Overeem has applied for a license to fight in the state and he will have the opportunity to present his case to the commission on why he should be granted that license, despite failing his pre-fight drug test. Now, some have speculated that he may use the defense of testosterone replacement therapy or TRT as a defense as we’ve seen several fighters do before. Speaking with Kizer, he has said Overeem has not applied for TRT exemption, but that does not mean he can’t. He has time to do that. As long as he gives the commission’s doctors time to deal with the situation.”

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[EXCLUSIVE] Keith Kizer Says He Does Not Expect Alistair Overeem to Apply for Therapeutic Use Exemption

By Elias Cepeda

(Photo via Esther Lin & MMAFighting )

A week before he will appear before the Nevada State Athletic Commission for a hearing regarding his failed March drug test and to request a license to fight Junior Dos Santos at UFC 146, the NSAC’s Executive Director Keith Kizer says that Alistair Overeem’s legal team has yet to request additional sample tests or to indicate that they will apply for a therapeutic use exemption for testosterone replacement therapy.

“They’ve asked for no additional testing ,” Kizer told CagePotato.com. “I have talked with Overeem’s attorney and that issue has not been raised.”

“He has not indicated what [Overeem’s] defense will be, but he has not said to me, as I’m sure he would have if he was using it, that [Overeem] is on TRT,” Kizer continued. “That is not to say that they could not still make that case and ask for a therapeutic use exemption for TRT, but if they do, I’d be as shocked as the next person. We’ll all see what they do when April 24^th comes around.”

When Overeem’s hearing does take place in one week, Kizer anticipates that the fighter will not have an easy road to getting licensed again. “It is going to be a very tough hearing for Mr. Overeem, to say the least,” Kizer said.

By Elias Cepeda

(Photo via Esther Lin & MMAFighting )

A week before he Alistair Overeem Gets April 24th NSAC Hearing” href=”http://www.cagepotato.com/alistair-overeem-gets-april-24th-nsac-hearing/” target=”_blank”>will appear before the Nevada State Athletic Commission for a hearing regarding his failed March drug test and to request a license to fight Junior Dos Santos at UFC 146, the NSAC’s Executive Director Keith Kizer says that Alistair Overeem’s legal team has yet to request additional sample tests or to indicate that they will apply for a therapeutic use exemption for testosterone replacement therapy.

“They’ve asked for no additional testing ,” Kizer told CagePotato.com. “I have talked with Overeem’s attorney and that issue has not been raised.”

The fact that Overeem previously failed to hand in samples for testing to the commission on time, will be relevant in the coming hearing, Kizer says.

“This is a lot different and a lot tougher [than Overeem’s last licensing hearing] come April 24th,” Kizer said. “What happened [before] is going to be very relevant. But the biggest relevancy to the commission’s decision this time will be what happened in March.”

A urine sample collected by the NSAC from Overeem on March 27^th came back showing a testosterone to epitestosterone ratio of 14:1, in excess of the 6:1 ration that the state commission allows. That test counted as one of the two surprise tests Overeem had agreed to be subjected to by the NSAC in a six-month period as a part of a conditional license he was issued to fight Brock Lesnar in late December after the Dutch fighter tested and turned in a sample for testing weeks late.

Overeem’s conditional license expired after 2011. In order to obtain another license in Nevada to fight in his schedule title bout against Dos Santos, he has to appear before the NSAC on April 24^th. The commission cannot suspend an unlicensed fighter for a failed drug test, but they can take into account Overeem’s recent screening results in deciding whether or not to issue a license to him.

Overeem’s failed test was of his ‘A’ sample. He has the right to ask the commission to test the ‘B’ sample he provided in March. Because Nevada does sometimes issue therapeutic use exemptions to some fighters to allow them to use otherwise banned substances and treatments (like testosterone replacement therapy) which could potentially alter a fighter’s testosterone levels and testosterone-to-epitestosterone ratios, it has been speculated that Overeem might apply for a TRT therapeutic use exemption with the commission, claiming a medical need for the therapy. As of now, that doesn’t seem to be the approach that Overeem will take while defending himself and re-applying for licensure next week.

Alistair Overeem’s Manager Says All Will Be Revealed in One Week With “Reasonable Explanation”

(Come on, would we let you down?)

So #1 UFC heavyweight title contender Alistair Overeem failed a late March surprise drug test administered by the Nevada State Athletic Commission (NSAC) for having a testosterone to epitestosterone ratio level higher than five men of Krypton and is now scheduled to appear before the commission in one week to ask for a license to face champ Junior Dos Santos May 26th. But not to worry, Reem fans: Alistair’s manager assures that his fighter will have a “reasonable explanation” for his unreasonable levels, according to Inside MMA‘s Ron Kruck, via CagedInsider.

“I spoke with Glenn Robinson, manager of Overeem and he says he is very respectful and is hopeful that he will be granted his license and the entire team is very confident that he will be facing Junior dos Santos come May 26th,” Kruck said.

“Now Robinson wanted to make it very clear that despite other reports, Overeem did not test high for testosterone, but rather his testosterone to epitestosterone was off and he has a reasonable explanation to why that is, which he will present to the commission next Tuesday.”

(Come on, would we let you down?)

If the UFC hadn’t refused to replace Overeem to this point and rule out most viable possible replacements should he not get licensed — and if the NSAC wasn’t in a tricky position of dealing with their first-ever positive test from an out-of-competition surprise test, coupled with their past openness to allowing therapeutic use exemptions for things like testosterone replacement therapy — we’d say Robinson was nuts for thinking his client would get licensed. But as it stands, who knows?

Overeem can still apply for a TUE, and the commission can grant it. We’ll see what defense he gives and if the commission will buy it, in light of his toying with their ~~emotions~~ regulations before his last fight.

– Elias Cepeda

‘Rally for Mark Hunt’ Final Thoughts: Sure Was Fun While It Lasted

I have impeccable timing. A few days ago I wrote about why I had decided to join the “Rally for Mark Hunt” movement. A day later, one single day later, it was reported that Dana White had effectively handed down a death sentence to the caus…

So now I’m putting up a post that is one-third response and two-thirds “it was fun while it lasted,” hence the name of the article. Three days later.

As I said: impeccable timing. Nevertheless, let’s begin.

Would it have been so bad if Hunt challenged for the UFC heavyweight championship? I don’t think so. If I go into specifics we’ll be here all day and we’ll skew far away from the good-natured intent of this post.

But just off the top of my head: Brock Lesnar, three-fight win streak, a vocal and passionate fan following, styles make fights, Frank Mir sucks against strikers, something something, Overeem cycles horse meat.

Feel free to debate any of those points at your leisure, I’ll more than likely join in on the conversation. But, for now, let’s move on to the core argument of this little blurb:

Sure was fun while it lasted, wasn’t it?

Admit it: We like arguing. Sports fans argue, but MMA fans tend to take things to the next level. You know you secretly love it. I know I do.

And while some of the debate and some of the threads turned really nasty and hateful on both sides, for the most part I really enjoyed both reading and discussing the pros and cons of Hunt getting a shot at the UFC heavyweight championship.

Also, let’s not forget how, for the briefest of instances, a large section of the MMA world stood united under the “Rally for Mark Hunt” banner.

This extended way past just a bunch of fans trying to get their voice heard. Popular MMA Web sites featured prominent news stories covering the growing movement. Several pro fighters gave their thoughts (mostly of support) through Facebook and/or Twitter. Even NickTheFace, the be-all and end-all when it comes to UFC hype videos on YouTube, posted a “Rally For Mark Hunt” video.

So, yeah—it was a whole hell of a lot of fun while it lasted.

And I hope that’s what we all take away from this situation, in all honesty. Yes, I do think it sucks that White responded to such an interesting and engaging movement with one single sentence. Yes, I do think UFC fans should feel slighted that White more or less swept all this under the rug.

But even if we didn’t accomplish our goal of getting Hunt to replace Overeem, we still accomplished something important. Despite being some of the most polarizing, opinionated, argumentative fans in all of sports, for the briefest of moments we were united as one.

And I’m damn proud of that.

I hope you are, too. I don’t regret jumping on the “Rally For Mark Hunt” bandwagon. I can even laugh at myself and realize how funny it is that a day after I jump on the bandwagon and give my big rallying cry, we finally got our answer: a big, loud “not happenin’.”

But no regrets, so I’ll say it again: It sure was fun while it lasted.

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Depressing News of the Day: Dana White Officially Kills #RallyForMarkHunt

It’s still real to us, damn it. Props to @ZeusJupiterMMAO

Pay attention, Tim Sylvia: It turns out that a Twitter campaign, no matter how popular, is not the best way to manipulate Dana White.

Even though we here at Cagepotato have known this to be true for a while, we still couldn’t help but get behind #RallyForMarkHunt. The online campaign to have “Super Samoan” fill in for Overeem at UFC 146 quickly took off among tech-savvy MMA fans, and even gained the approval of UFC color commentator Joe Rogan. For a second there, it looked as though the unlikely challenger would actually be getting a shot at ‘Cigano’; especially when Dana White announced that former champions Frank Mir and Cain Velasquez were not being considered but was silent about Mark Hunt.

Well, you can now officially stop getting your hopes up. At the post-event press conference for UFC on FUEL 2, Dana White issued the following statement about the online rally (as transcribed by BJPenn.com):

It’s still real to us, damn it. Props to @ZeusJupiterMMAO

Pay attention, Tim Sylvia: It turns out that a Twitter campaign, no matter how popular, is not the best way to manipulate Dana White.

“They can keep rallying. It ain’t going to happen… I have apologized and praised Mark Hunt for what he’s accomplished in the situation he was in. And I think this fight with Struve is a good fight for him. If he beats Struve, he’ll break in and start fighting some of the top five heavyweights in the world. Anything can happen in a fight, but in all reality, it’s not fair to Mark Hunt either, to throw the guy right in there with Junior Dos Santos for a title shot. The guy worked his way up, he beats Struve, he fights somebody in the top five. I guarantee you this, he beats Struve, his next fight will be someone in the top five that can get him closer to that title shot.”

Bummer. Oh well, if Dana White’s squashing of this Twitter rally gets Tim Sylvia to stop posting videos of him attempting to work out, maybe we can take something positive out of this.

But this begs the question: Assuming that the NSAC doesn’t buy into a pre-packaged “testosterone deficiency/replacement therapy” excuse, who do you want to see fight Junior Dos Santos on such short notice? To demonstrate beyond a shadow of a doubt that I have learned nothing from my own article, I have started a #RallyForWerdum campaign of my own. Your thoughts, Potato Nation.

Dana White Is Right to Deny Mark Hunt a Title Shot

Everyone loves a warrior. With an iron jaw, dynamite hands and a 265-pound frame, Mark Hunt certainly fits the bill.I am not against the Samoan in his run for the title. I jumped for joy when Hunt knocked out Chris Tuchscherer, and was equally thrilled…

Everyone loves a warrior. With an iron jaw, dynamite hands and a 265-pound frame, Mark Hunt certainly fits the bill.

I am not against the Samoan in his run for the title. I jumped for joy when Hunt knocked out Chris Tuchscherer, and was equally thrilled by the highlight-reel destruction of Chieck Kongo. Dana White hit the nail on the head today: we MMA fans are suckers for a comeback.

That being said, level-headed commentators should not suggest that Hunt has much to offer the UFC’s upper-echelon fighters. Cain Velasquez, Junior Dos Santos and Fabrico Werdum all have the right tools to give Hunt an exceptionally difficult time in the Octagon. Likewise, adoring fans shouldn’t forget that Hunt’s submission loss to the relatively unmemorable Sean McCorkle happened only three fights ago.

If we are to argue that Hunt has changed his game drastically since that time, which bout do we point towards? Neither Tuchscherer, Rothwell or Kongo can be described as title contenders, and no one has tested Hunt’s questionable ground game as of late— the division’s elite will hardly fail to exploit this weakness.

At this stage, Hunt’s chances of winning the belt are irrelevant; we shouldn’t see him in a title fight. MMA has entered a crucial stage in its development, courting the mainstream and attracting fans from a broad range of backgrounds. As the sport’s fanbase shifts, so do expectations.

Mainstream spectators are not likely to understand MMA’s lack of linear competitive structure. Few things could make the sport seem less legitimate than watching a freak-show bout between the world’s No. 1 heavyweight and a UFC newcomer who, until recently, would have been lucky to enter a heavyweight top-20 list.

If the Samoan wants a title shot, Stephan Struve is undoubtedly a step in the right direction. Assuming that Hunt can hang with the Dutchman’s ground skills and add another scalp to his belt, then—and only then—will he become an eligible contender.

White made the right decision in slowing Hunt’s advance. While we love our favorite fighters and are inclined to lead with our hearts, on this occasion we should keep our heads in the equation, too.

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