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drunkaholic707

drunkaholic707

FUCK LA
#14,581
Sep 20, 2005
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#14,581
UFC Fight Night 37: Gustafsson vs. Manuwa - March 8


main CARD
UFC Fight Pass, 3 p.m. ET
Alexander Gustafsson vs. Jimi Manuwa
Melvin Guillard vs. Michael Johnson
Brad Pickett vs. Neil Seery
Omari Akhmedov vs. Gunnar Nelson


preliminary CARD
UFC Fight Pass, 12:30 p.m. ET
Cyrille Diabate vs. Ilir Latifi
Luke Barnatt vs. Mats Nilsson
Brad Scott vs. Claudio Henrique da Silva
Roland Delorme vs. Davey Grant
Igor Araujo vs. Danny Mitchell
Louis Gaudinot vs. Phil Harris
 
trips

trips

Sicc OG
#14,587
Feb 8, 2006
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Recent title challenger Nate Diaz requests release from UFC contract



By Steven Marrocco

Nate Diaz is at it again on Twitter.

After blasting the headliners of UFC on FOX 9, attacking lightweight champ Anthony Pettis, and suggesting that no one wants to interview him, the UFC veteran today requested to be released from his contract.

And, of course, he did it in a way that is bound to stir up controversy and confusion. Citing the Twitter accounts of both the UFC and its president, Dana White, he wrote, “I would like to request to be released from the @ufc Its time for me to be on my way,” adding a cryptic ” .. ?” to the end of his message.

Diaz (17-9 MMA, 12-7 UFC) has been inactive since pounding out two-time lightweight title challenger Gray Maynard in a rubber match at this past November’s TUF 18 Finale. But that hasn’t kept him from speaking up on social media, where he’s issued sporadic and pointed tweets dedicated to various targets.

Some would say the messages served their purpose. After one particular rant aimed at Benson Henderson, Josh Thomson and Pettis, he seemed to cement interest from the lightweight champ’s camp in setting up a fight, regardless of his position in the 155-pound division.

Diaz’s manager, Mike Kogan, threw more gasoline on the fire by suggesting that Diaz was holding out for a title shot when he turned down a fight with Khabib Nurmagomedov at UFC 170 in favor of a better contract.

Today, Kogan’s response to MMAjunkie’s request for comment on Diaz’s release tweet was slightly more explicit: “F–k you, I have no comment,” he said.

White has shot down the idea the Diaz is a contender, but said he likes the fighter’s attitude about wanting to take tough challenges. He may be less enamored with the 28-year-old’s current approach.

Requests to the UFC for comment went unreturned.

Diaz, who’s the younger brother of retired onetime welterweight title challenger Nick Diaz, has fought 19 times in the octagon, once earning a lightweight title shot after three consecutive wins over tough opponents. He was dominated by now-former champ Henderson, and a subsequent knockout loss to Thomson damaged his title prospects. The win over Maynard rescued his standing, but his position became less clear with his rejection of Nurmagomedov.

With his latest message, Diaz might be putting himself on the ropes, or perhaps attempting to follow in the footsteps of longtime teammate Gilbert Melendez, who fielded a lucrative offer from Bellator as a restricted free agent and subsequently inked a sweetheart deal when the UFC matched the bid.

But it’s anyone’s guess as to what’s really going on with Diaz.
 
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RM211

RM211

Sicc OG
#14,588
Feb 10, 2006
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#14,588
Michael Bisping: Belfort will find new way to cheat, Weidman will get another asteris

Michael Bisping is happy to know that TRT is on the outs in Nevada, but he isn’t exactly holding his breath that a ban will change the behavior of perhaps its most famous user: Vitor Belfort.

“Vitor’s a cheat, simple as that,” Bisping today told MMAjunkie. “He’ll go out and try to find another way to cheat. He’ll find another way of manipulating the system, or he’ll try.

“For a guy that talks about Jesus, you should want to step in there the way God intended him to be. He’s a hypocrite.”

Bisping (24-5 MMA, 14-5 UFC), who is set to fight Tim Kennedy (17-4 MMA, 2-0 UFC) in April at the TUF Nations Finale after an eye injury threatened his career, said he’s moved past a loss to Belfort in January 2013 that derailed a potential middleweight title shot and forced him back to the drawing board.

He does, however, take satisfaction in knowing that regulators are cracking down on the controversial practice of hormone replacement, one that undoubtedly aided Belfort on his rise to title contention.

“It’s nice to know they’re being branded the cheats they have always been,” Bisping said. “They’ve been chemically enhancing their bodies for quite some time, and I always took a hard stance against it. Fortunately, the UFC and the Nevada athletic commission are branding it for what it is; it’s an unfair advantage and whole thing is just a mockery to the whole concept of sport and fair competition.

“In the past, I’ve lost to three guys on TRT. They had an unfair advantage, and I’m just glad nobody is going to have to suffer a defeat at the hands of somebody on TRT.”

The TUF Nations Finale takes place April 16 at Colisee Pepsi in Quebec City, Quebec, Canada. The main card airs on FOX Sports 1 following prelims on UFC Fight Pass.

Bisping’s career is notable for the number of disclosed TRT users he’s competed against and lost to, including Belfort, Chael Sonnen and Dan Henderson, all of whom were undergoing TRT at the time of their fights.

“The past is the past, of course,” he said. “I never knew that my opponent was on TRT; it was only after the fight took place that I was privy to that knowledge. Being a competitor, I would have never turned down the fight anyway, but the fact that it’s not allowed, it kind of makes you wonder.”

Thankfully, his next opponent, Kennedy, is a staunch opponent of doctor-approved testosterone use, so he doesn’t have to worry about whether or not an unfair advantage will be employed in the cage. But does the NSAC’s ban change the way he thinks about his losses? Do they now have asterisks beside them?

“I think with Vitor, it definitely should be,” Bisping said. “This is a guy that failed a drug test in the past, and now he’s taking TRT. For a while, he wouldn’t reveal the fact that he was on TRT, and now he’s very pro-TRT, and now that they’ve banned it, he’ll probably will just find another way to do it.”

Belfort has yet to comment on the Nevada State Athletic Commission’s ban on therapeutic-use exemptions for TRT and what path he’ll take toward getting licensed in the state for a title bout with champ Chris Weidman in May at UFC 173. With his stated plan to ask for a therapeutic-use exemption now off the table, it’s likely he’ll merely apply for a fight license and appear before the commission to answer for a previous NSAC steroid failure, his TRT use, and his status as a fighter over the age of 35.

“I’m definitely rooting for Chris Weidman,” Bisping said. “From a personal selfish position, regardless of what happened, Vitor does hold a victory over me; he connected with a decent head kick, and good for him. If Vitor was to be the champion, it might be more of a difficult sell fighting Vitor again.

“This is going to piss me off as well, because if Weidman is victorious, he fought Vitor not on the juice. So Weidman’s going to get even more credit. Is he credible? No. Anderson (Silva) broke his leg (in his second fight with Weidman); the first fight he acted like an idiot. Against Vitor, he fought him not on the juice. So let’s put it all in perspective.

“But for me personally, I want Chris to win. I’m going to make an example of Tim Kennedy, and then I would love my shot at the belt.”

Bisping’s ultimate goal is, of course, aimed at winning a title that’s eluded him since his winning turn on “The Ultimate Fighter 3.” While being one of the middleweight division’s more popular fighters, he hasn’t been able to win key fights that put him in title contention.

The NSAC’s rule change may have come too late for “The Count,” but he is still open to the idea of fighting Belfort again down the road.

“I wouldn’t want to do it this year, because it’s going to take a while before the effects of those drugs that he’s been taking truly come out of his system,” he said. “The muscle that he’s gained, that’s going to take a while before it diminishes. So he still might be at an advantage at the Chris Weidman fight. With the amount of cardio we do, it’s hard to put that kind of muscle on.

“But sure, I would love to fight Vitor. Give it a year, let him get all the juice out of his system, and then let’s do it again.”
 
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RM211

RM211

Sicc OG
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Feb 10, 2006
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#14,589
TRT is banned at last, but the battle isn't over yet

It finally happened. It took way too long, and got way too ridiculous along the way, but we got there.

Testosterone-replacement therapy is no more, at least in the state of Nevada. And generally, as Nevada goes, at least in terms of combat sports regulation, so goes the nation. This could be the end of the TRT era in MMA. Let’s hope so.

The Nevada State Athletic commission was unanimous in its vote. It also seemed oddly fixated on whether the NSAC had the resources to effectively monitor exemptions, which seems a little like outlawing crack cocaine because you don’t have enough garbage men to pick up all the discarded vials.

But let’s not get too caught up in why the NSAC did the right thing, or why it didn’t do it sooner. Not that those aren’t very valid questions – boy, are they ever – but this is a time for celebration. This is party time. This is ding-dong-the-witch-is-dead territory, right here. The sport of MMA just got better, more legitimate, and less embarrassing. It got cleaner, at least on the rulebooks.

Now if you want to use steroids in MMA, you’ll have to cheat. Which is, I’m sure, what some fighters will decide to do. Especially for those who are already on testosterone, the reasons to continue in secret might seem to outweigh the risks of getting caught.

For example, take Vitor Belfort (you knew it was headed there eventually, right?). The Young Dinosaur has been on the synthetic T for a few years now, by his own admission. Presumably he was still on it when he got the news that Nevada not only wouldn’t give him an exemption for his fight with UFC middleweight champion Chris Weidman in Las Vegas this May, but it wouldn’t give any more exemptions to anyone ever. So what’s he supposed to do now, with the fight a little less than three months away?

I guess he could go cold turkey right now, though that might have some pretty serious medical consequences. After years of testosterone use, the experts say, your body stops producing its own supply. It can rebound eventually, but that usually takes more than three months. His testosterone deficiency was so crippling, Belfort told us over and over, that it threatened to derail his career.

If that’s true, how is he going to survive a rigorous training camp to prepare for his title shot, to say nothing for the fight itself? Won’t he waste away before our very eyes, the poor waif? Won’t he disintegrate into a cloud of dust with the first punch?

But then, just because he can’t use it legally doesn’t mean he can’t use it. Catching users of synthetic testosterone – especially if they know exactly when they’ll be tested – isn’t so easy. The NSAC’s usual tests only look at testosterone-to-epitestosterone ratio. If you want to catch a guy who shot up that week (or one who didn’t expect to be tested, like Alistair Overeem), that might be good enough. But if you want to catch the people who shot up throughout training camp and knew when to taper off, you’ll need a carbon isotope ratio test, which the NSAC generally doesn’t do.

In other words, banning TRT won’t eliminate synthetic testosterone use in MMA. The big T will still be a preferred performance-enhancer. It’s only the “replacement therapy” part – that clever bit of coded language that made it sound less like doping and more like medicine – that will be eliminated with the stroke of a regulator’s pen.

So yes, let’s celebrate this decision by the NSAC. Let’s put pressure on the other athletic commissions, both in the U.S. and abroad, to follow that lead. Let’s also tell them not to stop there.

Just because we’re no longer giving fighters permission to cheat, that doesn’t mean they’ll abandon the search for an edge on the competition. That search, after all, has been going on for a while. It was only during this brief, shameful era that we decided to make it all too easy on them. I have a feeling that it won’t take long before we look back on it and wonder what we could have possibly been thinking.
 
RM211

RM211

Sicc OG
#14,590
Feb 10, 2006
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#14,590
Brian Stann, Tim Kennedy, Travis Browne speak out on NSAC's TRT ban

A trio of current and former UFC fighters opposed to the use of testosterone-replacement therapy in MMA voiced their support for the Nevada State Athletic Commission’s banning of exemptions for TRT users.

“I knew the day would come at some point that we would wake up and realize how ridiculous it is (to grant TUEs for TRT),” former UFC middleweight and FOX MMA analyst Brian Stann said.

In a landmark decision, the NSAC today voted unanimously to ban testosterone exemptions after expressing concerns about the health and safety of fighters with permission to use the hormone and the resources needed to properly monitor the process.

Stann said he didn’t expect the ruling to come when it did, but said it was another step toward legitimizing MMA.

“We depend on multiple organizations to support the sport, from the UFC to Bellator to World Series of Fighting, to athletic commissions, to the press,” he told MMAjunkie. “We’re all part of bringing the sport further, and this is a huge step.

“When you’ve got major media outlets comparing us to major sports and we’re smaller, and we’ve got something like this staining us, it’s huge that they got it taken care of before something happened, like what happened in Major League Baseball.”

UFC middleweight Tim Kennedy applauded the NSAC’s move and said he expected the California State Athletic Commission to follow suit in banning TUEs for TRT (currently, the commission follows the standard set forth by the World Anti-Doping Agency).

Kennedy also called the ban “kind of meaningless” unless it was supported by the UFC, which frequently regulates drug testing for overseas events. But he spoke to MMAjunkie before the promotion issued a statement backing the ban, which he said would make him “jump for joy and kiss (UFC President) Dana White’s beautiful bald head and do a muscle-off with (UFC CEO) Lorenzo (Fertitta).”

The fighter was less charitable toward current and public users of TRT, which include Vitor Belfort, whom he’s previously criticized for TRT use and a past steroid failure.

“I don’t care,” Kennedy said. “I hope they leave. I’ve always said if you failed a steroid test, I thought it was ridiculous that you could get a TRT exemption, let alone continue to fight in the sport. In cycling, if you fail a steroid test, you can have a lifetime ban from the sport. This is a step in the right direction, but athletes that have tested positive for anabolic steroids, they need to go away and stop dirtying our sport.”

Asked whether he believes Belfort should be forced to retire, Kennedy said, “If he can’t fight clean, then yes.”

Kennedy cited UFC heavyweight Travis Browne as an example of a fighter with the right mindset about the ethics behind using testosterone. Browne recently admitted to having low levels of the hormone, but said he chose not to undergo TRT therapy because he felt it would be cheating.

In an interview following the NSAC’s TRT ban, Browne said that fighters are held to a higher standard than the public when it comes to what they put in their bodies. He said testosterone levels are as much a part of biology as a fighter’s reach and height, and that manipulating them makes a fight unfair.

“We’re all physically build different, and that’s part of our bodies (with) our testosterone levels,” he said. “I want an 84-inch reach. But at the end of the day, I can’t get it. Just because something is available to you in a synthetic form doesn’t mean that it’s OK to take it. If you want the fight to be completely fair, it’s not about raising the testosterone levels to what you think is fair. Your body produces a certain level. Your levels are at those levels for a reason.

“The way that it was argued (with the NSAC) was a health issue. For me, I’m not about someone not being healthy. But when it comes to competition, I don’t feel like you should be able to use (TRT). There are guys that party, smoke weed, and do whatever else they want to do. But on fight night, you’re not allowed to do that stuff. You need to be you on fight night.

“If you’re going through your life and you have low testosterone and you’re having problems with your health or your marriage, that’s fine. Do it in your normal life. But not in the cage. Not in the octagon.”
 
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drunkaholic707

drunkaholic707

FUCK LA
#14,591
Sep 20, 2005
26,037
58,964
113
FUCK YOU
#14,591
Bellator 110: Rampage vs. M'Pumbu- tonight



February 28, 2014 | Mohegan Sun Arena | Uncasville, Connecticut

main CARD
Spike TV, 9 p.m. ET
Christian M'Pumbu vs. Quinton Jackson
light heavyweight tournament semifinal
Muhammed Lawal vs. Mikhail Zayats
light heavyweight tournament semifinal
Matt Bessette vs. Diego Nunes
featherweight tournament opening round
Will Martinez vs. Goiti Yamauchi
featherweight tournament opening round
Desmond Green vs. Mike Richman
featherweight tournament opening round


preliminary CARD
Spike.com, 6:30 p.m. ET
Scott Cleve vs. Daniel Weichel
featherweight tournament opening round
Saul Almeida vs. Andrew Fisher
Andrew Calandrelli vs. Ryan Quinn
Josh Diekmann vs. Manny Lara
Rico DiSciullo vs. Marvin Maldonado
Atanas Djambazov vs. Egidijus Valavicius
 
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