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UFC 193 Fact or Fiction: Is Ronda Rousey Unbeatable?

If you are looking for one final clue about who most people—including the promoters—think will win Saturday’s UFC 193 main event, look no further than the fight card’s official tagline: The Rousey Revolution Continues.
Yeah. So. Uh…t…

Yeah. So. Uh…that bit of marketing doesn’t appear to even consider the possibility that Holly Holm might pull an upset over Ronda Rousey in Australia this weekend, does it?

With good reason, obviously. We have yet to see another woman bantamweight who looks like she even belongs in the same cage as Rousey. Holm comes in undefeated and possessing fearsome striking skills, but isn’t expected to be able to hang around long if the champion can get this fight to the mat.

So the questions we ask ourselves about Rousey no longer concern whether it’s possible she’ll lose her 135-pound title this week, but if she’ll lose her title, like, ever. Luckily for you, Bleacher Report MMA Lead Writer Chad Dundas and Senior Columnist Mike Chiappetta are here to separate the Rousey Facts from the Rousey Fictions.

And a boatload of other UFC 193 storylines, too!

Fact or Fiction: Ronda Rousey is Unbeatable.

Mike Chiapetta: Fiction. I would love Jon Jones’ chances against Rousey. Oh, wait, we’re talking about women here, aren’t we? Well, that changes things.

Rousey vs. anyone in her division is becoming just about the biggest lock in sports. Still, declaring someone “unbeatable” is hyperbole. Even if Rousey is as close as it gets, when you consider all of the distractions she regularly faces, focus must, at times, become an issue. From her burgeoning Hollywood career to endorsement opportunities to red-carpet and talk-show appearances, as well as personal drama spilling out into the public, her attention is divided like no one else’s in MMA.

So far, that hasn’t been any kind of issue for her when she competes. But it’s not crazy to believe this might make her more vulnerable at some point. The list of champions who have been undone by distractions is staggering. Mike Tyson was a 42-to-1 favorite when he lost to Buster Douglas 25 years ago.

Rousey’s challenger, Holly Holm, has a skill set that is elite in one area–striking. That could threaten Rousey if her mind is not where it needs to be on fight night. All it takes is one momentary lapse of focus. Is an upset likely to materialize? No. Rousey’s a lopsided favorite for good reason. She is significantly better than anyone else inhabiting her division. But the pressures of the crown have been lamented forever, and just a hint of distraction crossing over into the fighting arena can change fortunes forever.

Chad Dundas: There’s a radio ad on right now where Joe Rogan can be heard saying, “Once in a lifetime doesn’t apply to Ronda Rousey. It’s once ever—in human history!” So to say there’s a wee bit of mythologizing going on around the women’s bantamweight champion right now is an understatement.

Look, we know there are people who can beat Rousey because there are female judokas walking the planet right now who’ve done it—hence that bronze medal at the 2008 Olympics. But is anyone who can beat her going to show up in the shallow waters of the UFC 135-pound class before Rousey calls it quits and rides off into the Hollyood sunset? Doubt it.

However, I think Holm will come the closest of anyone. That is to say, not very close, but I expect her to give Rousey a round or two of fairly competitive action. Call me crazy, but if Holm can stay on her bike, fight from range and maybe land a few jabs and leg kicks, I think she can make things halfway interesting on Saturday night.

MC: OK, I’ll bite. You’re crazy. I don’t expect the fight to be competitive, even though Holm can stretch things out by staying on the outside. At some point they’ll get locked up, and Rousey will toss her to the ground, and due to Holm’s ground inexperience, that will be that.

I don’t think Holm can match up with Rousey the way, say, Cris Cyborg can. Rousey won’t be able to muscle her around so easily, and Cyborg has so much more experience than Holm does. She also has the power to shock the world with a single punch. Hopefully, that fight gets made soon.

Fact or Fiction: Joanna Jedrzejczyk steals the show with an easy win over Valerie Letourneau.

CD: I’m cautiously going to say this one is fact, Mike. Maybe I’m just too bullish on Holm’s ability to give Rousey an actual fight, but I think there’s a decent chance Joanna Jedrzejczyk emerges as UFC 193’s breakout performer.

It’s clearly no accident that fight company brass are putting Jedrzejczyk and Rousey together as a package deal here. They’re hoping massive amounts of pay-per-view buyers come for Her Rowdiness and leave just as taken with the Polish strawweight champion.

Our pals at Odds Shark make Jedrzejczyk a comparably sized favorite over Valerie Letourneau as Rousey is over Holm. That leads me to believe if Holm fares slightly better than expected and Jedrzejczyk does something terrible to Letourneau, it might unexpectedly turn out to be Joanna Champion’s night.

What say you?

MC: As much as I want to agree with you, given Jedrzejczyk’s immense likability factor, ain’t no one stealing the show from Rousey. The roughly 70,000 people estimated to show up to Melbourne’s Etihad Stadium are coming to take in her star power. The pay-per-view crowd is ponying up their $55 to witness whatever it is she’s going to do. She’s become an event fighter. You don’t steal the show from those.

That said, Jedrzejczyk stands to gain more than anyone else on the card as a supporting act. As you mentioned, the UFC is clearly showcasing her alongside Rousey for a reason. If she gives the people what they want, she’ll leave a much bigger star.

CD: Well, I hope that last part is true, at least. As Rousey’s star-power continues to gobble up headlines I’m starting to feel like Jedrzejczyk is women’s MMA’s best kept secret. The only question I have about her marketability—a point originally made by my Co-Main Event Podcast cohort and your former colleague Ben Fowlkes—is whether her more violent fighting style will appeal to the non-MMA fans who tune in to see Rousey.

If Jedrzejczyk beats Letourneau bloody, will the little girls and soccer moms the UFC is working so hard to pitch Rousey to be turned off? Or will they catch Jedrzejczyk Fever?

Fact or Fiction: The Mark Hunt vs. Antonio Silva rematch lives up to their first fight.

MC: Fiction. I was in Australia for the first fight between them, a surprise classic that materialized out of the Brisbane morning ether. Certainly, no one came to the arena expecting a rollicking battle that saw momentum given and taken in shocking bursts. Heavyweight fights generally do not follow that kind of arc. The almost universally accepted prediction was that within a round, maybe two, one of them would land some tree-smasher of a right hand and that would be that.

Instead, it was non-stop action. When the dust cleared, it was announced that the two combined for 184 significant strikes, a UFC heavyweight record. Soon after those unofficial totals, FightMetric revised the count upward, saying the number was actually 200. Each man was knocked down once, and they combined for 321 total blows.

Afterward, UFC president Dana White was so amped that he had a one-of-a-kind rematch T-shirt made. The euphoria, however, was short-lived. Silva failed his drug test due to elevated levels of testosterone, knocking some of the luster off his performance.

As rematches go, it’s cool, if unnecessary. The rematch can’t live up to the original, if only because both men left pieces of themselves there that day.

CD: Silva and Hunt both roll into this rematch with 1-3-1 records in their last five fights. Hunt is 41, Silva 36. I guess since both these guys needed something to do and there was a big fight card coming up in Australia, it only made sense to put them together one more time.

Given that their first fight ended in that majority draw, I can even see a strange, twisted logic to it all. But we would be fools to expect another classic.

These two heavyweights both only know one way to fight—and that’s with a never-say-die, swing-for-the-fences enthusiasm that is infectious to watch and terrifying when you try to reckon with the likely fallout.

After so much wear and tear on their bodies, however, I don’t think either guy’s chin will be up to another 15-minutes of rock ’em sock ’em. This one likely starts with a furious pace, but ends with someone getting tucked in for the night before the end of the first round.

MC: I agree. Heavyweights hit so hard that one brain-scrambler is usually the only one necessary. It’s difficult to reverse momentum once one lands that kind of game-changer. It occasionally happens, but not to the extent of the first matchup between these two monsters, when neither could hold off the other’s advances. That was an anomaly not to be recreated.

As the third fight down on the card, the expectations can be tempered anyway. Like I said before, this is the Rousey show, and everyone else is fighting for a glimmer of spotlight.

Fact or Fiction: Stefan Struve reminds us he’s still viable…and a decade younger than everybody else.

CD: Fact. At this point, it’s been 19 months since doctors cleared Stefan Struve to return from a career-threatening heart ailment and 16 months since an apparent backstage panic attack scuttled his planned fight with Matt Mitrione.

Struve lost his return bout to Alistair Overeem last December, but bounced back with a victory over Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira at UFC 190. Here he takes on Jared Rosholt, who is 5-1 in the UFC, but almost let himself get knockout out by “Dad Bod” Timothy Johnson in the late stages of a fight Rosholt otherwise dominated in August.

If Struve wins this—and I think he will—it will give him two in a row in the UFC heavyweight division, which is like four in a row in any other weight class. He’ll also remain just 27 years old, which in the hoary old 265-pound ranks, makes him still just a kid.

All in all, there might be a lot to like about Struve moving forward, eh?

MC: Fac…tion? To be honest, I’m torn on this one. Sure, Struve is only 27, but he has some serious mileage on him. This will be UFC fight No. 16 for him, which is in the top 10 all-time for UFC heavyweights. During his career, he’s been knocked out multiple times, had several injuries and suffered a heart problem that nearly forced him out of the sport.

Beyond those physical issues, he’s good enough to threaten anyone, but has struggled against the best opponents he’s faced. His most significant career win is over Stipe Miocic, but if the two were to meet again, Miocic would probably be favored. Bottom line: A win over Jared Rosholt isn’t going to suddenly make anyone a believer that Struve is a true title threat.

CD: Whoa, whoa, whoa. Nobody said anything about Struve being an immediate title threat. Personally, I try not to even speak the name of the cursed UFC heavyweight championship unless I have to, lest it bring some kind of terrible Cain Velasquez-esque injury plague down on my family.

But look, the 265-pound class badly needs young contenders, and if Struve puts Rosholt on ice, I think it’ll be good enough to lump him in with the current glut of guys waiting for Velasaquez and Fabricio Werdum to settle their business so they can vie for a title shot in 2016.

Struve vs. Big Ben Rothwell perhaps?

#wouldwatch

UFC 193 airs on Saturday at 10 p.m. ET, 7 p.m. PT on pay-per-view.

Read more MMA news on BleacherReport.com

Joanna Jedrzejczyk Is Way Too Violent to Be Ronda Rousey

Ronda Rousey is a force of nature.
She is a scintillating fighter and an athlete of the highest caliber. Her fights—such as they are—have become the UFC’s highest-drawing events, mostly because she has connected with a new slice of an audie…

Ronda Rousey is a force of nature.

She is a scintillating fighter and an athlete of the highest caliber. Her fights—such as they are—have become the UFC’s highest-drawing events, mostly because she has connected with a new slice of an audience that has never before existed for mixed martial arts.

I use my mom as an example quite a bit when it comes to describing what Rousey has done. My mom hates fighting. Hates it.

You know how Dana White says that we all have this crap in our DNA and we all love watching it?

Well, Dana has never met my mom. She does not have this in her DNA.

When I’ve covered fights at her house—during vacations or whatever—she won’t watch the TV. She physically turns away and has a look on her face that says, “If I see much more of this, I am going to throw up on somebody and also kick you out of my house and maybe hit you with a broomstick on the way out, just for good measure.”

See, my mom is like a lot of people. Most people really just don’t like violence, which is why there’s a ceiling of how popular mixed martial arts can really get. These people won’t tune in and suddenly become addicted to violence and blood. They just won’t.

All that nonsense about mixed martial arts being the biggest sport in the world? Being bigger than world or American football?

Stahhhhp it. It’ll never happen. There’s a finite amount of people in the world who can willingly sit and watch the kind of violence that unfolds in mixed martial arts and not only not be squeamish about it, but actively cheer for it. And chances are they’re already watching.

That’s why the audience isn’t really growing beyond the heights it experienced back in the days of Brock Lesnar and Georges St-Pierre.

Only, it is. Sort of. Because Rousey, with all her charm, charisma, looks and ability to absolutely smoke an opponent in less time than it takes most of us to get up and make a sandwich, has connected with a totally new group of people.

There are young girls out there dressing up as Rousey for Halloween. She’s on women’s magazine covers and every talk show in the world.

She has become a role model—sometimes in spite of herself—and that’s an incredible thing when you realize that all this is happening because of a woman who mauls other women for money in a cage.

My mom loves Ronda. Loves her. She’ll be watching UFC 193 on Saturday night.

They’ll all tune in to see her dispatch poor, brave Holly Holm—probably in less than two minutes. But the thing is, they may not even make it to the main event. I know my mom won’t.

Because what they’ll see in the co-main event might just make them cringe, turn away and perhaps even turn off the television.

Joanna Jedrzejczyk, 28, is the UFC’s current ruler of the strawweight division. In so many ways, she and Rousey are alike. They are confident and brash. They are beautiful. Both of them have mastered the art of trash-talking.

It’s easy to see why the UFC’s brain trust decided that, hey, putting Jedrzejczyk on the same card as Rousey is a brilliant idea because people will tune in to see Rousey, they’ll see Jedrzejczyk and then we’ll have a new star on our hands.

It is a sound idea. In theory, anyway. But the reality is that all of those people who tune in to see Ronda do her thing are unaccustomed to the kind of violence Jedrzejczyk brings to the Octagon.

The 5’6″ Jedrzejczyk may not strike the most imposing figure, but one look at her handiwork in a fight will have you walking on the other side of the street if you see her coming your way.

Take a look back, if you will, at what she did to Jessica Penne in June:

Poor, poor Jessica Penne, the very good fighter who was so excited for a chance at realizing her dream of championship gold. She just couldn’t wait to get in that cage. She didn’t realize she was climbing in there with a woman who would not only beat her beyond recognition but exhibit a special kind of glee while doing so.

Rousey is a violent person and brilliant fighter, but it’s a different type of thing. She’s a good striker, which is mighty impressive when you consider where she once was in that department. However, she’s not going to strike fear in your heart in a boxing match. I mean, perhaps she should. We should maybe ask Bethe Correia about that.

But, really, where Rousey hurts you is in throwing you on your head. Her opponents go flying, find themselves in a tangle and before they know it, they are tapping out.

They don’t know what happened, but they aren’t unconscious and bloody, and they don’t strike a passing resemblance to Joseph Merrick, the late-1800s human curiosity known as the Elephant Man. After Jedrzejczyk finished her handiwork, Penne did.

Jedrzejczyk is a world-class striker—perhaps even the best overall striker on the entire UFC roster—and hits much harder than you’d think she does. She hits harder, hits more and is so very, very accurate, and all three of those things added up to a terrible night for Penne and Carla Esparza, the woman Jedrzejczyk forcefully dethroned to win the belt in the first place.

And it will likely be the same for Valerie Letourneau, who signaled her bravery by agreeing to step in the Octagon with Jedrzejczyk in the first place.

Rousey is a palatable finisher. She can make some people uncomfortable, sure, especially if they stumble across her book or recent views on sex.

But in the Octagon, she’s violent without being violent, if that makes sense. What Rousey does, the normal person can handle. There is no blood and no facial reconstruction. She grabs you, and it’s over.

Simple as that. Nice and clean.

Not so with Jedrzejczyk. Her violence is more pronounced, rawer. It’s hard not to feel for Letourneau, a massive underdog who will do well—or perhaps not well at all—if she’s able to last until she hears the final bell and still walk out of the Octagon on her own.

But it’s also hard not to feel for those new followers of RouseyMania who will plop in front of a TV to see their new hero, only to witness a horror show unfold before their eyes before Ronda ever hits the cage.

Joanna Jedrzejczyk is marketable, yes. But not in the same way as Rousey. The bantamweight darling’s massive fanbase around the world will not translate into a massive fanbase for Jedrzejczyk because they are not the same person, and they do not do the same things.

Perhaps some of those new folks will stick around, become Jedrzejczyk supporters and buy Jedrzejczyk fight kits and terrible stick-figure T-shirts.

The likelier scenario is they’ll cover their eyes and pray for the violence to be over so that they can move on to the thing they actually tuned in to see.

That isn’t exactly what the UFC wanted when it set up this whole thing in the first place, I’m sure.

But that’s what it’s going to get because that’s what Joanna Champion delivers.

Read more MMA news on BleacherReport.com

UFC 193: Latest Rousey vs. Holm Odds, Predictions and Pre-Weigh-in Hype

UFC is making its first trek to Melbourne, Australia, and is pulling out all the stops, with Ronda Rousey stepping back into the Octagon for the first time in four months, putting her bantamweight title on the line against undefeated challenger Holly H…

There was a time when this bout would have been considered a contrast in styles, with Rousey being the excellent ground and submission fighter taking on the boxer-turned-mixed-martial-artist in Holm.

As every great athlete does, though, Rousey has evolved, with three of her last four wins coming via knockout or TKO. Holm is moving into uncharted waters, as her highest-profile win to date was against 38-year-old Marion Reneau, who is also ranked 11th in UFC’s official women’s bantamweight fighter rankings.

Rousey is the overwhelming favorite to win this bout, as expected, and Holm still has to prove that she warrants this marquee matchup with such a brief UFC resume that includes just two fights entering Saturday night.

Odds

What They Are Saying

This is a change of pace, both for UFC and Rousey. Saturday’s event is taking place in a stadium that was originally scheduled to seat 15,000 but has bumped that total up to 70,000 due to insane demand for tickets.

Because UFC is taking its show on the road for a big stadium show, media commitments are very different for this show. Rousey, speaking to Duane Finley of Sports Illustrated, has admitted that this is unique for her experiences.

“It’s a lot of pressure,” Rousey said. “The stadium has the capacity for 70,000, but I still have to fill up 70,000. I’m doing all I can to try to meet that goal, but the ultimate goal is to beat Holly. If everything else falls into place that’s awesome, but if not I tried my best.”

The promotion for an event is something that doesn’t get talked about often enough, especially when the entire show is being built around a single fighter. Rousey is the draw on this card, being the biggest star in the sport, and has to prepare for her match while also selling the show in public appearances.

Continuing her talk with Finley, Rousey admitted her schedule over the last year has been chaotic:

I go on these runs and it’s just hard. This will be my third title fight in nine months and it’s exhausting. I kind of think of it more as how much I’ve done since the last time I got to rest. This fight with Holly is the last hurdle before the next time I get to rest and there is no way on earth this girl is taking my rest and happiness away from me.

There is no reason to doubt that Rousey will be physically and mentally prepared for the bout, as she continues to end matches within 66 seconds of the opening bell, but the law of averages would say at some point she will hit a wall.

Holm hopes Saturday will be Rousey’s first slip-up, though the challenger told Rick Maese of the Washington Post she’s tired of receiving one question.

“I am sick of hearing, ‘Do you think you can win?’ ” Holm said. “Like, who takes a fight going, ‘I don’t think I can win. I’m just here.’ I don’t understand that.”

It’s an understandable feeling, as the world assumes Rousey will win and the only question being asked by fans is how long it will take to happen. Some fans would even consider Holm going two minutes with Rousey to be a victory in its own right.

Despite that particular annoyance, Holm was quick to give Rousey respect for what she has accomplished in the Octagon.

“I feel to me, it doesn’t really matter. . . . Trust me, I fear her—she’s the toughest, most dominating competitor out there. But she’s still just another female, just another person. There’s huge upsets in history for a reason. Somebody had to believe in themselves to get there,” Holm told Maese.

Flying under the radar isn’t a bad thing, since Rousey is carrying the burden of expectations and being the star of the show. Holm can sit back, focus all her energy on preparing for the champion and look to shock the world.

One of the many people in Rousey’s corner for this fight is legendary boxing trainer Freddie Roach, who told MMAFighting.com’s Ariel Helwani that the ground will be the difference:

[Rousey’s] not the best in the world [at boxing], but she’s good, she’s very competitive, she tries really hard. It’s probably not the best thing she does, she probably better at ground game, but again, she’s more experienced there. Her boxing is good, the girl she’s fighting is a good boxer also. When they stand up it will be a good fight but when it goes to the ground she’s going to destroy her.

There has to be a feeling that if Rousey loses, it will come in a fight that stays standing up. She’s been so great on the ground, dating back to her days before MMA when the 28-year-old won a bronze medal in Judo at the 2008 Summer Olympics.

Holm has the boxing skill, but she has never gone against a ground fighter anywhere near the caliber of Rousey, so it would be stunning if she were able to pull the upset off.

Another problem facing Holm in this bout, as noted by Jeff Wagenheim of Sports Illustrated, is there are limitations to her boxing ability:

Normally, in a boxer vs. grappler bout, one would say the standup fighter has at least a puncher’s chance. But Holm, for all of her boxing background, is not a power puncher. She did win all but one of her pre-UFC bouts by knockout, but ever since she stepped up to the big leagues, both of her fights have gone to decision. And even in 38 boxing matches, she had but nine KOs.

Wagenheim also pointed out that Holm only connects on 28 percent of her significant strikes, compared to 63 percent for Rousey.

Being a methodical striker is not inherently wrong, as Holm rode that style to win multiple boxing titles in her career, but Rousey’s aggressive, relentless attacking style does not leave many chances to wait for opportunities to pick her apart.

Predictions

Even in sports, which are by their very nature unpredictable despite everyone always offering a prediction, there are certain athletes or teams impossible to pick against until you see them lose.

For years, Anderson Silva was the UFC fighter carrying that torch. Rousey has ascended to the throne in a short time, showing no signs of relinquishing the crown anytime soon. Holm will be a more formidable foe than Bethe Correia or Cat Zingano, but the end result will be the same.

Rousey wins via first-round submission

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The Ronda Rousey Problem: Why the Breaking Point is Near

^{Photo by Brandon Magnus/Zuffa LLC/Zuffa LLC via Getty Images}

Stop me if you’ve heard this song and dance before: Ronda Rousey has an upcoming pay-per-view match and her opponent is hyped up to be her toughest challenge ever. However, a few seconds into the fight, Rousey wins an uncompetitive mismatch.

That exact scenario is going to happen again at UFC 193. The Ronda Rousey problem for Dana White is simple: there’s not a 135-pound woman in the world that can beat her or even give her a serious fight.

The post The Ronda Rousey Problem: Why the Breaking Point is Near appeared first on Cagepotato.

^{Photo by Brandon Magnus/Zuffa LLC/Zuffa LLC via Getty Images}

So how much longer are casual fans going to fork over $50 to watch Rousey arm bar another helpless woman in one minute or less?

Soon, if we’re not there yet, a UFC match featuring women will no longer be newsworthy and fans are going to want exciting, competitive matches – where, you know, the opponent actually has a chance of winning.

Unless White stops hiding Rousey from the heavier Cris Cyborg, the PPV numbers are are bound to start falling. And with her being the UFC’s top draw, that’d be a gut-punch to the business part of the sport.

Of course, this all speaks to Rousey’s greatness. She’s a one of a kind pioneer of sorts in that she’s about a decade ahead of any other woman at her weight. Thus, she’s unbeatable against other 135-pounders.

But ultimately, people – particularly casual fans – watch fights to be entertained. Watching Rousey destroy inferior competition will only be entertaining for so long.

Dana White, this means the money train is going to start slowing way down unless you solve the problem at hand.

UFC 193: Rousey vs. Holm takes place this weekend on November 15, 2015 at the Etihad Stadium in Melbourne, Australia.

By Jerome Matthews

The post The Ronda Rousey Problem: Why the Breaking Point is Near appeared first on Cagepotato.

UFC 193: Antonio “Bigfoot” Silva Looking for ‘Sixth Round’ with Mark Hunt

A little more than a year ago, Antonio Silva underwent surgery to remove a tumor on his pituitary gland.
Silva spent nearly his entire life with the tumor. It caused acromegaly, a disease in which the pituitary produces much higher-than-normal levels o…

A little more than a year ago, Antonio Silva underwent surgery to remove a tumor on his pituitary gland.

Silva spent nearly his entire life with the tumor. It caused acromegaly, a disease in which the pituitary produces much higher-than-normal levels of growth hormone. As a result, humans afflicted with acromegaly become, well, larger than your average person. André “The Giant” Roussimoff, perhaps one of the most famous international professional wrestlers of all time, spent a lifetime with the disease.

Though nowhere close to the 7’4″ he was billed at during his pro wrestling career, Roussimoff was legitimately 6’10” and roughly 450 pounds.

A giant of a man, indeed. So giant, in fact, that the disease–coupled with his now-legendary habit of eating and drinking prodigious amounts of food and alcohol—felled him at the age of 46, passing away in his sleep of congestive heart failure.

Silva never reached Andre proportions, of course. But he is still a hulking man, standing 6’4″ and cutting from 290 pounds to make the heavyweight limit of 265. And so after losing by knockout to Andrei Arlovski in September 2014, Silva had the tumor removed. He returned a few months later but lost again by knockout, this time to Frank Mir. But the important part, more important than the losses, was that Silva finally felt better. He was whole again.

“I’m feeling great after the surgery,” he told Bleacher Report this week. “Everything is better. Physically, I am better. Training is better. Everything is just better.”

Silva returned to the Octagon in August and finally got back on the winning track with a knockout win over Soa Palelei. This Saturday, he steps back in the cage to turn back the hands of time, in a way.

You see, nearly two years ago, on December 7, 2013, Silva and Mark Hunt put on one of the all-time classic fights in UFC history. Even upon repeated viewings, the bout resembles something more like a war than a mixed martial arts contest. It was bloody and brutal, the kind of fight that makes some fans scream while others cover their eyes. Silva and Hunt fought to a draw, which felt both like a loss and the only fair result. The fight was so memorable that UFC president Dana White commissioned the clothing company Roots of Fight to make a special one-off shirt, just for him, celebrating the fight. He even gave both men their win bonuses despite the fight being scored a draw.

Afterwards, the memory of the bout was sullied when it was revealed that Silva had tested positive for elevated levels of testosterone. Silva had to give back his win bonus and his $50,000 check for Fight of the Night, and he was suspended for nine months. He’d been under the care of the UFC, undergoing testosterone replacement therapy, but still his levels were outside the normal range.

Today, the TRT era is gone. Silva believes he was one of the few who actually had a clinical need for the treatment, and he has a point, what with the tumor on his pituitary gland and all. But the rules are the rules, and Silva has to comply with them the same way others must. The era of legalized testosterone usage is now viewed with contempt, but Silva believes that shouldn’t be the case.

“It depends on how you see TRT use. Some people have a clinical condition. They need it,” he said. “But since it’s a new rule and the fighters have it in their contracts, they have to follow the rules. So I will follow the rules just like everyone else.”

Silva sees the fight with Hunt—a featured bout on Saturday’s UFC 193 card from Australia—as, essentially, an extension of their first fight. He believes winning, at the end of the day, is the most important item on his agenda. But if he can go in there with Hunt and put on a thrilling fight again? That’s the dream, because Silva loves entertaining, loves putting on a show. And doing it in front of a stadium filled with Australian fans is a great way to do it.

“That’s what I want the most, is the same fight again. It will be like fighting the sixth round,” he said. “Winning is the most important thing to me. But the perfect world is to win while putting on a huge fight for the public.”

It’s hard for Silva to describe what it’s like to be in the middle of that kind of fight. He finds himself in those kinds of spirited bouts a lot these days; his breathtaking come-from-behind win over Alistair Overeem is a high point of his career. He’s got the same switch most fighters do, the one that is flipped when things get a little crazy. Time stands still and things get a little dark around the edges, and Silva picks up his giant hands and swings them with abandon.

He’s hoping for a repeat performance on Saturday. With his track record, there’s a good chance he’ll get what he wants.

“I enjoy that. I like that kind of fight a lot,” he said. “The fight with Mark was such a great fight. Both of us gave their best, and that’s the most important thing. When you’re standing in the Octagon, when you’re inside the cage, you have to give your best, the best that you can.

“I was born to fight. I cannot imagine doing anything else.”

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UFC 193: USADA’s ‘Prohibited Association’ Clause Unjust for Valerie Letourneau

The mission to curb performance-enhancing drug use in sports is fraught with challenges, most expected but many unforeseen. The thing about combating drug cheats, or cheats of any kind, is that a one-size-fits-all policy almost never works. Codes are d…

Take for instance, the recent notice given by the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) to disallow UFC strawweight title challenger Valerie Letourneau from having suspended UFC welterweight Hector Lombard as a cornerman for her fight against champion Joanna Jedrzejczyk. In January, USADA adopted the World Anti-Doping Agency’s “Prohibited Association” rule, which bars athletes from associating with coaches, trainers, physicians, or other athlete support personnel who are sanctioned and/or criminally convicted of doping.

Lombard, who was given a one-year ban after testing positive for the steroid desoxymethyltestosterone in January, is a teammate of Letourneau’s at American Top Team in Florida. He essentially serves as one of her coaches. That is publicly known. What is not so public is that the two are in an involved relationship. While they have not gone out of their way to confirm it, the two have occasionally made references to it, either in photos or more recently, in a dual interview in which they briefly discussed it.

This is most certainly a complicating consideration, mostly because freedom of association has been interpreted to be an essential part of the U.S. Constitution’s First Amendment, with “intimate association” as a subset protecting private, personal relationships. Even those regarding non-Americans.

Moreover, Lombard was punished in January, prior to the UFC’s partnership with USADA. According to Article 20.5 of the program, the Anti-Doping policy “shall not apply retroactively to matters pending before the Effective Date.” Prohibited Association policies adopted by other countries have specific language in relation to retroactive bans, barring those that have “been convicted or found in a criminal, disciplinary or professional proceeding to have engaged in conduct which would have constituted a violation of anti-doping rules if [WADA] Code-compliant rules had been applicable…” The Nevada Athletic Commission is not WADA Code-compliant, for example, relying on non-accredited lab Quest Diagnostics for Lombard’s positive test result.

If Letourneau or even Lombard were so inclined, they might have the makings of a legal challenge to USADA’s ruling.

This is just another case where a UFC fighters association would have worked to protect the athletes from misguided policy that is dictated instead of cooperatively reached.

The problem of USADA’s rule here is not in the intent but the effect. The intent of the rule is to penalize the drug cheat; in Letourneau’s case, she is the one being penalized by losing an experienced set of eyes in her corner. According to USADA rules, she could be subject to a penalty of up to two years for associating with Lombard in a sport-related capacity.

To illustrate how counterintuitive this is, the UFC’s own drug czar, Jeff Novitzky, originally told MMA Junkie, “I think the spirit of the prohibited association is for somebody who is distributing or advising an athlete on how to use drugs, not an athlete who was using themselves and got caught.”

In other words, to his understanding, the statute was written to keep dealers or pushers away from talent.

The realities of MMA and its camp-based approach make the “prohibited association” penalty difficult to enforce with any true uniformity. For example, is everyone that Lombard comes into contact with at American Top Team facing the same kind of trouble as Letourneau?

If you’ve ever stepped foot into an MMA gym for more than five minutes, you’d know they are filled with learning and sharing opportunities. After more than two decades of competing in martial arts both in judo at the Olympic level and in MMA at an elite level, Lombard brings a wealth of knowledge that makes him an indispensable teammate, and there is zero chance he is not tutoring someone—maybe everyone —on something, every day.

The ability to share something—PED knowledge—is what USADA is trying to stop; noble in theory, but wholly inefficient in most instances.

Lombard and other suspended fighters are unlikely to completely remove themselves from the sport for the entire span of their bans. So even if you see this as a fair penalty for doping, is it enforceable? Banned athletes are going to find a way to train, and in MMA, you need partners to do that, to push and pull, punch and kick. If it’s not in the Coconut Creek, Florida gym, perhaps it will be on some mats at his house, or at a local school. But in a sport with team-based training, he and the other suspended fighters will find their team.

Allowing athletes to maintain the structure of their training routines is both humane and progressive. Unlike major sports, where most athletes are millionaires and can temporarily relocate to a willing coach or hire an individual training guru to prepare for reinstatement, most mixed martial artists don’t have the resources to adjust the same way. Even if they did, there are precious few top-level coaches unaffiliated with gyms. Making the drug cheat a pariah is the whole point of the penalty, but robbing them of their entire support system, and by extension, teammates of their support, is a double-edged punishment. So you end up where we are now, with innocent parties affected.

This isn’t the same thing as a coach who is supplying steroids to his athletes. There is no evidence that Lombard has some sinister agenda he is promoting. He pled guilty and accepted his 12-month competition suspension from earning a paycheck, and that should be the extent of it. Instead, he is supposed to separate himself from his girlfriend and team, and she is supposed to remove possibly her most important support system.

Expose her to additional testing scrutiny? Sure. Fighting PEDs requires some sacrifice, even from the innocent. But asking someone to give up their partner is more than a sacrifice. In the real world, we try to keep convicted felons from associating with other criminals, but we don’t stop upstanding citizens from giving cons a path back to legitimacy. Lombard is not a dealer; he’s a boyfriend providing the support expected in a relationship. In this case, USADA one-size-fits-all policy does not work. In this case, it’s mostly charade and pretense.

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