Current UFC Heavyweight Champion Junior dos Santos told Brazil’s “O Globo” newspaper that he doesn’t think Alistair Overeem should be able to get the title shot now that he failed a drug test, but he’d still take the fight.
“In case it happens, I’ll be glad to fight, but I can say that in case they prove the illegal use of those substances it would disrespectful to the sport and disloyal to me. The amount of testosterone in his body can increase like 30 percent of his strength and aggressiveness, and I heard it from people who really know about this stuff. It would really be unfair, but as a fighter I’ll be ready to fight anyone. If the [NSAC] and UFC want to, I’ll fight him. I’m a fighter and I’ll always be there to fight, but it sure is disrespectful to MMA and how serious the sport is. It’s also unfair, it’s unfair to me.
“I have never used these devices to gain strength. I guess the right thing would be blood-test fighters like it happens on the Olympic Games, and not a urine test, since it’s easier to find those illegal substances. We want to know who really the best one is. It’s not good being the best liar. Being a fake champion and doing many drugs, that’s not a champion.”
Hard to disagree with dos Santos here. Even if Overeem is allowed to fight, based on a technicality, everyone already knows he “boosts” in-between fights, and that does cloud the sport. Especially if he were to defeat JDS. Then it would be a media firestorm all over the UFC. Not an ideal situation for a sport trying to gain mainstream acceptability.
International Mixed Martial Arts Federation (IMMAF), a new non-profit international MMA governing body, announced their foundation to the world in a press release. According to President August Wallen, the new organization strives to provide a stable, professional and democratic community for all national federations and offer support to countries committed to forming new federations where none currently exist.
“This is a very proud day for us. The IMMAF is committed to be at the forefront of developing MMA as an international sport, from the grassroots level to the elite level, supporting the development of regulations and best practices on health, safety, youth involvement and more…Our vision is for MMA to be recognized as a sport through the full membership of IMMAF in SportAccord and for it to ultimately become an Olympic sport. I know many of us dedicated to MMA dream of the day that the sport has worldwide recognition and this is a first step towards making that happen.”
MMA Worldwide Dream in full effect. The UFC fully supports this and hopefully the IMAAF will do a great job at regulating MMA across the globe. This may not interest the casual fan, but this is huge news.
Frank Mir’s manager, Malki Kawa, told MMAWeekly.com that he still believes his client will be the first choice to replace Alistair Overeem if that is needed.
“I think there’s a bout agreement in place right now between Overeem and Junior dos Santos, and I think legally if he gets licensed, he has an opportunity to take action or what would happen is they would say ‘hey Frank Mir you’re going to JDS’ and the 24th comes, which is two weeks away, and then they turn around and say ‘Overeem here’s your license.’ Well now Frank guess what you’re going back to fight Cain (Velasquez) and Overeem you go fight JDS. So to avoid confusion, what I think is happening is they’re going to wait for the decision, if Overeem gets licensed, everything goes on as planned. If Overeem doesn’t get licensed, then you can bet your house there’s going to be a replacement. I tend to think that it will be Frank Mir…”
I would have to agree. Besides bringing in someone outside the UFC, who else really deserves the shot at JDS? Mir is the only logical situation, and I’m pretty sure the UFC has it planned exactly as Kawa describes.
In a new blog post at FoxSports.com, UFC Light-Heavyweight Champion Jon Jones called Rashad Evans arrogant and fake. “I look at my opponent as fake, self-centered and arrogant, and he tries to reflect all of what he is on me. Matt Hughes was the first to call him out for being cocky, for being arrogant, way back on the Ultimate Fighter II back in 2005. That’s a Hall of Famer in Matt Hughes, a man who is greatly respected by everyone in the sport, and he was the first guy to sniff out what my opponent really is…I’m the present and the future of the UFC light heavyweight division. My opponent is the past. And soon all the talk will be over and I will finally be able prove that in the middle of the Octagon.”
Evans is arrogant, no doubt. But I would have to say Jones is more arrogant, and calling Evans “my opponent” over and over instead of by his name backs up my statement. I’m really hyped for this fight though. Only 8 days away!
Nick Diaz’s attorney, Las Vegas’ Ross Goodman, has filed a second response to the Nevada State Athletic Commission following their allegations that his client provided false or misleading information to the Commission. “All of the answers Diaz provided to the Commission on the Pre-Fight Questionnaire (“Questionnaire”) were expressly qualified as ‘true and accurate to the best of [Diaz's] knowledge.’ In other words, in drafting the Questionnaire, the NSAC expressly imposes only a standard of good faith (and not, e.g., a physician’s standard) on unarmed combatants…Not only does the FAC allege no facts which could tend to establish Diaz’s bad faith in filling out the Questionnaire, but the answers Diaz provided are precisely those that the NSAC should have expected where it elected not to provide definitions of any potential technical terminology on the Questionnaire.”
The more and more I hear Diaz’s side (read: his attorney’s statements), the more and more I see that he has a real shot at getting this dismissed. But, the commission can do whatever they want, pretty much, so it remains to be seen just exactly what will happen to the polarizing welterweight.
