After their lightweight title fight on July 7 both fighters tested positive. Sherk for nandrolone and Franca for drostanolone. They were both fined $2,500 and suspended until 7/5/08. Sherk is reported to be appealing the findings. If that doesn't work out he'll be forced to give up his belt. K:thecore should be liking this news. How many fighters (percentage) do you all think use roids? Here's a column about it and about what UFC needs to do (it points out steroids in MMA as a whole could be a problem, but since UFC is the biggest name they are the ones who need to set a big example): http://sports.yahoo.com/box/news?slug=ki-roids071907&prov=yhoo&type=lgns
This is so dissapointing in my opinion. Especially after the massive exposure Sherk got from the All Access shows. The guys trains like a demon, and the amount he was caught with was pretty low. Will be interesting to see if UFC strips Sherk of his title or not.
I've never really thought otherwise. But I agree with the column that UFC needs to be at the forefront of doing something about it. UFC wants itself (and MMA as a whole) to really be seen as a legitimate sport in the US. They're doing plenty to make that happen but MMA and UFC can't be compared to entertainment wrestling and the steroid problem there (Benoit most recently). To do that UFC especially needs to start testing more often than just after a fight and stripping champions of their belts.
Totally agreed - the fighters need to know that there'll be hell to pay for taking any steroids/weed/smack/whatever. And yeah, I think stripping Champs that get busted is going to be a given.
Suspensions for one year on a first offense, to me is very proactive, certainly better than most of the pro sports int his country. He's got to be stripped of the belt too though.
He was scheduled to fight BJ Penn for the title now that is cancelled. You have a lot of injuries in martial arts just training for fights. The promotors are promoting the fights. They don't want to cancell the fights. Take these drugs to recover from injuries fast. However, that is not the reason Sherk uses them it is for an advantage. The fighters should lose their whole purse for using this stuff and not just be fined a few thousand. Problem is also a lot of fighter if they lose get only 3 thousand and that is even in the UFC.
Agreed completely. Look at what happened to Parisyan. The guy was in line for a title shot against Hughes a few years ago, and had to pull out injured. Never got that shot again. Some of these fighters are under a lot of pressure to earn a living from fighting and the temptation of drug use becomes to much. I actually think Sherk's was an accident. This is all speculation of course as is everyones opinion, but i think that with all the supplements that he takes, one of them possibly had a substance that is banned. So many times i have seen athletes take supplements/medicine without knowing that its a banned substance. Sherk takes 22 supplements a day. The sport is new, and the athletes need to be testing themselves and making sure to have regular appointments with doctors regarding the supplements they are taking.
The problem with Karo's injury was after he bailed there was no one good ready to fight Hughes. So they were forced to take Joe Riggs it was a terrible fight. That effected attendence on the next UFC event. Plus if I remember right "ace" fought the other so called Nate the great. First round knockout for Franklyn another bad fight. Nate had no business fighting for a title.
A fighter that had made me a fan was Carter Williams of K-1. When he won the K-1 USA Grand Prix he looked strong fast and very skilled taking out some of the big names in K-1. A year later he looked huge but slow and not as active in his fights. It was fairly obvious he had steroids and it ruined him as a fighter. He could have been great but the amount of bulk he put on made him dropped him from an outstanding kickboxer to about average for K-1.