For a sport with foundations as shaky and carnival like as MMA, it’s not hard to understand why it’s come across its fair share of crazy and dubious moments. Strangely, all the bouts below are from the last couple of years, and the controversy comes from the surroundings of the fight rather than the matches themselves.
Think I missed one better? email me at colmivers@gmail.com
5. Nick Diaz Vs. Takanori Gomi
Pride 33 – Second Coming
February 24, 2007
Thomas & Mack Center,
Las Vegas, Nevada, USA
what happened:
Nick Diaz upset Gomi in what was easily a fight of the year candidate, it marked the end of Gomi’s dominant status at lightweight and the return of a dedicated and dangerous Nick Diaz.
The controversy:
The Nevada state athletic commission overturned Diaz’s victory and ruled the fight a no contest after Diaz tested positive for a banned substance. This was smack in the middle of the steroids explosion in MMA of 2007, when suddenly fighters were testing positive all over the board (probably a symptom of increased testing rather than a new found fad amongst fighters)
The difference here was simple however, Diaz didn’t test positive for your typical performance enhancers, he was found to have been taking cannabis. I must stress the term performance enhancer because despite what we all know about this indolence inducing drug, NSAC doctor Tony Alamo seemed to believe that Diaz had so much of the drug in his system it lessened his ability to feel pain and as such gave him an unfair advantage over his opponent.
“Mr. Diaz was 175.(a THC level of 50 was the limit in Nevada at the time of testing) This creates a unique situation. I was there at this fight and believe that you were intoxicated and… that it made you numb to the pain. Did it help you win? I think it did.”
What followed was a debate over state law in California which allows for medicinal cannabis use as Diaz was later denied a license for Elite XC based on what Armando Garcia described as a ‘verbal test’ over the phone, as a fiveouncesofpain.com article read: “at least test the guy and suspend him based on those grounds”. The mans bad judgment and lunacy often knew no bounds and luckily his successors have done much to improve on his position, but that’s an article for another day.
The result:
One of the most important fights of one of the most important years in the sports short history will forever carry an astrix and a tale that overshadows the quality of the fight itself.
4. BJ Penn Vs. George St. Pierre II
UFC 94
January 31, 2009
MGM Grand Garden Arena,
Las Vegas, Nevada
What happened?
BJ Penn wins the lightweight title (third times a charm) and asserts his dominance over the division. Finally living up to the hype and fanfare he entered the sport with, he elects to move up to welterweight (again) and challenge GSP (again) for the divisions title (again). BJ fails to avenge his previous loss and is plain outworked by a much stronger GSP who makes BJ work hard for much of the first and then smothers him for the next two rounds. BJ doesn’t come out for the fourth. It wasn’t quite the superfight the UFC brass hyped it up to be but at least fans could look forward to hearing about something else, right?
The controversy:
GREASEGATE! During the course of the fight someone in BJ’s camp pointed out officials that one of GSP’s corner men was rubbing a vasoline clad hand (used for shielding the face from potential cuts) into the French Canadians back. NSAC top dog Kieth Kizer reportedly confronted trainer Greg Jackson during the course of the fight and a complaint was made by BJ and camp following the fight.
BJ and his attorney (and his mom… no seriously) all made statements in regards the matter with the probable goal of:
1.having the decision overturned to DQ or NC
2.Convincing the fans and the UFC that a third pairing was necessary
Unfortunately for BJ, most media coverage was quite negative as the case did seem to drag for an eternity, Sherdog radio host TJ DeSantis actually threatened to cut any callers who mentioned greasing or vasoline. Most editorials on the net painted BJ as a whiner and sore loser, something he takes personally to this day, BJ went as far as to say that he refused Sherdog’s Greg savage access to his training camp in the run up to the Florian fight because he couldn’t produce one article from the site in BJ’s favour. (something Savage later denied was ever discussed)
Kieth Kizer downplayed BJ’s efforts and even belittled them on occasion:
“Anyone can come to me and say, ‘Keith, we think there is a concern here. We think you should look at this… I have no plans to bring a complaint against anybody in this case,”
In the end, GSP and Jackson apologized for any inadvertent wrong doings and despite a few more allegations that this had been an ongoing problem with GSP, the fans and media seemed to forgive and move on, as did baby-Jay, though the incident clearly left a bitter taste in his mouth.
The result:
Worthy and deserving contenders Thiago Alves and Kenny Florian had to wait what must have seemed like an eternity for their respective title shot’s, Florian’s made worse by not knowing if BJ would retire after the bout win or loss and fans spent several weeks reading about GSP’s greasy back.
3. Hermes Franca Vs Sean Sherk
UFC 73 – Stacked
July 7, 2007
ARCO Arena,
Sacramento, Calif.
What happened:
Sherk defended his title for the first time since beating Kenny Florian, a five round fight ensues, the tale of which was Sherk controlling on the ground convincingly but displaying Dan Severn like inability to finish the fight, Franca kept things interesting by dropping Sherk a couple of times with heavy knees. Sherk takes the decision and retains the title.
The Controversy:
Both fighters tested positive for steroids. The fight became the exclamation point of what would be a very ugly year in MMA where the rampant steroid problem would become very apparent. This fight became the morbid poster boy because not only was it a title fight but both fighters were using, so regardless of the result there would have been a cheating champion (I love alliteration).
What followed the initial storm and confusion was two very different responses:
Hermes Franca apologised before the commission, claimed he was taking the substance to aid recovery, he needed the money to feed his family, knew he’d done wrong, etc. etc.
Sherk on the other hand went a very different route; he denied use, claimed the tests were wrong, hired a lawyer and went to war against the CSAC. In Sherks defence, the actions and behaviour of the mostly misguided commission (this was the height of the Armando Garcia days) were nothing short of dubious, they seemed to make the rules as they went along and stacked the chips in there favour against Sherk and what seemed to be very plausible evidence worth investigation and consideration.
In the end, Sherks sentence was reduced but upheld, the UFC and Dana White had no choice but to strip him of his title (they had held off doing so for as long as they could) and pit BJ Penn and Joe Stevenson against each other for the now vacant title.
The result:
Sherk maintains his innocence to the present day and not in an OJ Simpson way but in an active and angry way, his determination to deny wrong doing is actually quite convincing at the best of times but unfortunately his levels were above the limit (not by much mind you) and he is therefore a steroid user until such time as he has that judgment over ruled.
BJ went on to talk nothing but trash against Sherk from the moment the story broke, this resulted in Sherk being booed by the crowd after BJ’s win, something Sherk took quite personally, he even refused to sign autographs after it happened.
Sherk would get a title shot soon after but he failed to deal with BJ’s jab and was badly out struck by the Hawaiian, he remains one of the top lightweights in the world and gradually the fans have stopped booing.
Franca has since returned to the UFC and racked up a 1 – 1 and is scheduled to fight again at UFC 103.
After this incident it seemed like there wasn’t a week that went by without an MMA fighter testing positive for steroids, between both competitors using in a title fight and the original ultimate fighting champion Royce Gracie failing a test that would have made Elvis proud, it was clear that MMA had lost its innocence, it was now a real sport, for better and sadly worse.
2. Kevin ‘Kimbo Slice’ fergusson Vs. Seth Petruzelli
EliteXC – Heat
October 4, 2008
BankAtlantic Center,
Sunrise, Fla.
What happened:
Seth Petruzelli, a TUF vet who didn’t quite hack it in the UFC is moved up from the under card as a last second replacement for Ken Shamrock to face off against Kimbo for the CBS broadcast main event. Shamrock had cut himself with an accidental head butt while warming up earlier in the day and was denied clearance to fight, of all the replacements to pit against Slice they picked a no win situation; a Petruzelli win would cripple Elite XC’s credibility as it would take out there main meal ticket and at the same time provide Dana White with all the fodder he needed, A Kimbo win would result in a far less marketable outcome then taking out a big name such as Shamrock. Frank Shamrock offered to take the fight but it was deemed by management that getting him clearance to fight would be too difficult. In the end, Petruzelli threw two teeps and a short right hand, he dropped the massive striker in less time than it took to text the result to a friend. In the background you could clearly see Jared Shaw (general PR guy without a real job description) reacting like he’d watched his family die in a car crash, an unprofessional and all to telling display of how much stock they put into the over hyped Slice, he later apologised for this on Sherdogs ‘Beatdown’. Elite XC folded less than a week following the event.
The Controversy:
There’s actually a hell of a lot of things I could focus on here but we’ll stick to the one pertaining to the sport. In a post fight interview (with who) Petruzelli let slip that he was told to stand with Kimbo and keep it off the ground
“The promoters kinda hinted to me and they gave me the money to stand and throw with him, they didn’t want me to take him down. Let’s just put it that way. It was worth my while to try and stand up punch him”
This naturally caused something of a storm, Dana White was right on the case issuing a response that damned Elite XC for not caring about MMA and requesting an investigation into the incident.
The eventual result was released On October 23, 2008, by the Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation, no wrong doing was found to have occurred, not that that mattered by then. Elite XC, which had long been in serious financial trouble, was in the process of negotiating a refinancing deal that would have saved there skin and allowed them to continue trying if even just for a little longer. However, after the stand up scandal broke the deal fell through and Elite XC crumbled.
The result:
Elite XC fell apart and left a sour taste in the mouth of fans, fighters, and most importantly: network television executives, MMA was off national television and had left an appalling impression, miraculously, CBS and Showtime were still interested in MMA and eventually picked up the diligent hard working and never over stretching Strike-force to pick up where the Shaws had left off.
Several promotions snapped up by the Pro elite parent company such as King of the cage and Cage rage were washed away in the the collapse, the move almost obliterated the middle tier of MMA leaving basically no one to compete in the middle ground and destroying years of history and cumulative work in these smaller promotions. (I still miss Cage rage contenders visits to Dublin)
Seth Petruzelli took this momentum and did basically nothing with it, he still hasn’t competed since the win. Kimbo also disapeared and eventually signed up to appear on TUF season 10, Dana White eventually got the best end of the stick as when Kimbo loses on the show he will have gotten all the ratings Slice brings but none of the soreness when he falls.
The Shaws exited MMA (there’s always a silver lining).
1.Kyle Maynard Vs Bryan Fry
April 25th, 2009
an out door venue near Auburn University campus, Alabama
What happened:
Bryan Fry keeps Maynard at a distance with his jab and wins a three round decision.
The controversy:
Kyle Maynard had no arms or legs.
Now i hate to use the word freak show so early in this paragraph but it’s unfortunately hard to avoid, Kyle Maynard is an inspirational young man who despite the fact is missing forearms and shins (and hands) has accomplished more athletically and shows more balls and heart than I or any other man reading this will ever know in their entire life, regardless of how hard we try. He set weightlifting records, competed successfully in amateur wrestling, wrote a book and appeared on the likes of Oprah and Larry Kings shows on TV. I have nothing but respect for the man and wish for nothing more than to be a fraction of the man he is, honestly, he’s a hero and an inspiration.
…But I still laughed during the fight (I’m going straight to hell, straight to hell) the sight of limbless man scurrying around the mat at break neck speed like a dog chasing an opponent who did his best Kalib Starnes impression (look it up) for 15 minutes was unpalatable, at times funny, at times creepy and deeply unsettling, reminiscent of Tod Browning’s freaks. I do feel bad but let’s face it, this was a freak show fight. The only reason anyone covered it in the media was because of that, the only reason anyone bought a ticket to the minuscule event was because of that. I was really just relieved he didn’t get hurt.
The result:
A couple things came out of this fight, the most important of which was this: MMA was a sport people dreamed about, it now had its Rudy, its story of a man who dreamed of stepping into the sport and tasting it if even just for a second, MMA was a dream come true and something people aspire to do and partake in, huge stuff really considering most of the planet still don’t know it exists and if they do, don’t like it.
Maynard also proved he’s the bravest man on the planet, most of us wouldn’t be too keen to go into a cage against a trained opponent, let alone at a disadvantage such as his. My real hope though is that Maynard has satiated his thrist and can now retire the four ounce fingerless gloves, mission accomplished.
“I didn’t win tonight,” Maynard said. “I have to get back on the horse and perfect things. This has given me a taste. I want to get back in there and do it again. I’m only 23 years old. I’ve got a lot of time left athletically.”
With any luck Maynard will sleep tonight and have a dream that’s easier to watch.
Quotes sourced from sherdog.com and fiveouncesofpain.com
photos sourced from sherdog.com and bloody elbow.com
Man up 