Despite knowing of consequences of use of banned substances, fighters are still coming up dirty and the sport of MMA is starting to look like Major League Baseball. Why do fighters continue to use the banned substances? Sometimes it’s difficult to move up or stay in a weight class when you’re training and sometimes they use for speedy recovery and to build lean muscle mass. They also know that it’s possible that other fighters like their opponents are using drugs too, so they want that edge. It;s just like any other sport and athlete that’s using performance enhancing drugs.

The penalties are fairly stiff with suspensions and fines to the fighters. If a fighters gets suspended, he’s going to lose money from missed fights and if he’s out of the game for too long he may even lose his endorsements. These are only the short term effects of steroids on fighters. The long term health effects are the ones they should be sincerely worried about.

MMAJunkie.com reported that the Nevada State Athletics Commission has vowed for stiffer penalties for fighters that come up positive for banned substances. Some of the possible punishments is forfeiture of win bonuses and fight results being overturned. They recently fined Karo Parisyan $32,000 for his positive test for banned substances and overturned his win at UFC 94. Even though the banned substances may not have been steroids, they feel that the substances gave him a winning edge over his opponent.

So what is it going to take for Fighters to stop using performance enhancing drugs? Same thing it’s going to take to get any other athletes to stop using. Penalties so stiff that they’ll be afraid to use.

Image: Newscom

Post from: EveryJoe

Stiffer Penalties For Failed Drug Tests

• Forrest Griffin Is the poster child for THQ’s upcoming UFC Undisputed game. You can check out pictures of that at THQ.com.
• Jason Guida has been named as Ken Shamrock’s replacement at March Badness on March 21st. Ken Shamrock was scheduled to fight Bobby Lashley but was recently suspended for popping positive for 3 banned substances by the California State Athletics Commission after his last fight.
• MMA Junkie reports that David Kirby, the other driver involved in the crash that took the life of Tapout founder Charles “Mask Lewis, will indeed be charged with Felony Vehicular Manslaughter as well as his third conviction of DUI added to his laundry list of traffic offenses from over the years. Kirby is still being held on 2 million dollars bail.

Image: Newscom (Caption: A memorial has been setup by friends and well wishers at the scene of Charles ”Mask” Lewis’, founder of TapouT clothing, crash on Jamboree Road, near Eastbluff Drive in Newport Beach, Thursday morning, March 12, 2009.Photo: KEN STEINHARDT, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER )

Post from: EveryJoe

Monday MMA Tidbits

According to MMA Junkie and Blood Elbow, this fight is going to take place at March Badness, a Hybrid Boxing/MMA event. It is set for action on March 21st at Pensacola Civic Center in Pensacola, Florida and is being promoted by Squared Ring Promotions, owned by Roy Jones Jr.

Other fights on the card are Seth Petruzelli Vs. Doug Marshall. If Seth doesn’t get lucky in the first round like he did with Kimbo Slice, he’ll have his hands full with the hard hitting “Rhino”.

One Bloody Elbow reader commented:

This is a tough one to pick. Bobby Lashley was the ECW champ a couple times as well as the United States champ. On the other hand, Ken Shamrock did win the King of the Ring tournament and the Intercontinental title. So hard to pick…

I got quite the laugh out of that. Rumor has it that they may try to push this for PPV.

Post from: EveryJoe

Boby Lashley To Fight Ken Shamrock

Ken Shamrock was once a great fighter. He was one of the fighters that helped mold what the UFC is today. Should he stop fighting? No. But until he wins against more worthy opponents, people will not take him seriously.

Tank Abbott also won against Mike Bourke and it’s rumored that Shamrock and Abbott may square up against each other in the future.

Post from: EveryJoe

Ken Shamrock Breaks His Losing Streak By Beating An Overweight And A Lot Less Skilled Fighter

Rumors:

Tank Abbott Vs. Ken Shamrock: Ok, neither of these guys are in their prime, but if this does happen will it really be worth watching? I mean Tank Abbott has been over the hill for some time now. He never was a technical fighter and even though Ken is getting up there as well and hasn’t won a good fight in awhile, I think he would pick tank apart in the first round.

Brian Stan Vs. Krzysztof Soszynski: This could be interesting, Krzysztof Soszynski has some ring experience, but Brian Stan can take a hit and is a good striker. This could go either way, but if I had to put money on it, I would put it on Stan. This fight may take place at UFC 97.

Not Rumors:

Miguel Torres Vs. Brian Bowles: This is not a rumor, this fight is actually set for WEC 40 in Chicago, Illinois on April 5th. Miguel Torres cut down Tapia in his last title defense and it’s going to be interesting to see how many more he can keep at arms length. Brian Bowles is no slacker and I think if he plays his game right, he could give Torres a run for his money.

Matt Hughes Vs. Matt Serra: We’ve been waiting for this fight since TUF 6 and now we will finally get our chance. This was supposed to happen after the season ended, but Serra got injured and Hughes had to fight Georges St. Pierre, whom he lost to. Not too long afterwards, Serra faced St. Pierre in a title (re)match, which did not go as well as Serra thought it would. St. Pierre was back and better than ever. We’ll see which one of these fighters has their game face on for this one. This fight is set for UFC 98.

Chuck Liddell Vs. Mauricio Rua: Chuck’s didn’t fair well in his last fight against Rashad Evans, but that doesn’t mean he’s taking a step back either. Mauricio Rua better step up his game and endurance if he wants to make an impact in this fight. After his less than stellar, yet winning performance in UFC 93, Rua may have his hands full if he can’t polish off his ring rust. This fight is set for UFC 97.

Image: Newscom

Post from: EveryJoe

MMA Upcoming Fights, Rumors And Views

At 44 years old, Shamrock is still in great physical condition. MMA Junkie reports that Ken is set to fight in a co-promoted event with Cali based promotion “Wargods” and his own promotion “KSP”. There is no opponent for Shamrock named yet, but this just bring sup the question, when will Shamrock save face and call it a day? I’d like to see Shamrock go out on a winning note and retire as a fighter.

There has been rumor that he may fight his adopted brother, Frank Shamrock in a bout that would be hailed as a highly anticipated “Super-fight”. A lot of people say that they really have no desire to see this fight happen. Personally I think the younger Frank Shamrock would dominate this fight.

Image: Newscom.com

Post from: EveryJoe

Ken Shamrock…Still Relevant?

MMAFighting.com reports:

Kimbo Slice could be headed to Japan for "Dynamite!! 2008" on New Year’s Eve, possibly for a rematch against Seth Petruzelli.

Sharon Robb of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel confirmed Wednesday that "Dynamite!! 2008" is one of the options under consideration by Slice and his agent Mike Imber

So if this does happen, and the outcome is the same then everyone that has been saying that Kimbo Slice is NOT a real MMA fighter will have their lungs full of air, ready to spit out a big, fat "Told You So". Can you blame them though? Let’s look at some of the fighters he has stepped in to the ring with.

Kimbo Slice has had 4 fights in the Elite XC and one in Cage Fighting Fury Championship:

Kimbo’s first professional fight matched him up against Ray Mercer, a professional boxer in his first professional MMA fight, just like Slice. Ray Mercer was 46 years old at this point and as I said, this was his first professional fight. Slice actually won this fight by a guillotine choke.

His first Elite XC fight was with Bo Cantrell, a fighter that did have quite a few fights under his belt. The round started off with both fighters kind of playing it safe until Slice caught Cantrell with a strong right that looked like it stunned him and Cantrell dropped to the ground. Cantrell didn’t make much of an effort to defend himself and actually tapped out before taking too much more of a beating. A lot of people say that this match looked fixed and if you watch it, you could say the same thing. Slice’s first fight in Elite XC a set-up to draw a crowd and make him look bigger and badder than he actually is? Maybe. Perhaps Cantrell has never been hit that hard, who knows? Take a look…

Slice’s second fight was with a "Veteran" unorthodox MMA fighter "Tank" Abbott. Tank is and was, during this fight, far beyond his prime. No submission specialist here. Tank is a brawler and often overwhelms his opponents when he used to win. At the time that Kimbo fought Tank, Abbott had only won 3 of his last 10 fights before his bout with Slice. Was Abbott a credible opponent for Slice or just a "Big Name" to draw a crowd and money?

His third fight in Elite XC matched Kimbo Slice up against UK fighter James Thompson. Thompson had 23 professional fights under his belt. At the time he was matched up to fight Slice he had only won 4 of his last 10 fights. Are you starting to see the pattern here? However, this was probably the better of the matches because it lasted 3 rounds but still ended by ref stoppage 38 seconds in to the third.

His fourth and last fight in Elite XC was supposed to be against Ken Shamrock. Ken is not a dude that is in his prime anymore either, but if I was sure that it was a legit fight, I would say that Ken would definitely win this one. Unfortunately Ken "cut" himself during a warm up and had to be replaced by a lesser known fighter that was a contestant on the UFC’s Ultimate Fighter 1. Seth Petruzelli took the fight and under contract would be paid 35K just for fighting and another 15K to win. Kimbo earned 500K for fighting and would have won an additional 100K if he won. This fight only lasted 14 seconds with the underdog winning with a controversial knockout. Watch the fight and then read a little conspiracy theory below that.

So Ken Shamrock is not a cheap fighter. Makes you wonder what he was going to get paid had he fought. Given the financial state or ProElite at the time it kind of makes you wonder if they told Ken that they couldn’t pay him and he refused to fight. They ask another guy that’s much cheaper to pay because they still want to hold the fight. They fix the fight so the lesser paid fighter wins and they save another 100K. You see where I’m going here? ProElite just closed it’s doors and plan on filing for Bankruptcy. It all makes sense, but why would Kimbo agree to less money? Maybe they told him it was either 500k or nothing? It’s tough to say but it leaves you wondering, doesn’t it? None of these fighters had a good fight record in their last ten fights with the exception of Seth Pteruzelli, who had only LOST two of his last 10 fights. I understand that you have to fight your way to the top, but it just seems a little fishy that they kept matching Kimbo up against fighters out of their prime or with loss records higher than win records. And they were paying him an insane amount of money. It’s no wonder ProElite shut down.

Image used with permission from Newscom.com

Post from: EveryJoe

Slice And Petruzelli A Possible Rematch?

With both fighters past their prime and the fact that neither is getting any younger, it’s about time. Frank Shamrock doesn’t just want this fight on CBS or Showtime. He thinks it warrants a Pay-Per-View event. I’d watch this fight if it were on PPV or Showtime, but I can’t say that I would pay to watch it. IN fact, right now I would not pay for any PPV Elite XC fight. I like the fact that the WEC and UFC hold specific fights for PPV events and others for cable. That brings a lot of appeal to them as opposed to putting every fight on PPV.

I’m not taking anything away from either fighter, ’cause God knows that I wouldn’t step into the ring with either one of them. Well maybe if the price was right and the ref was guaranteed to stop the fight before I beaten to an unrecognizable pulp. All I’m saying is that this is one of those fights that would have been cool years ago. These days there are much more exciting fights to watch and this is more of a novelty, cash grabbing fight in my opinion. Hype it up, sell it and cash in. Brother Vs. Brother, like the civil wars of cage fighting. To some people this might look to be the greatest fight since Tyson Vs. Holyfield 1, but to me it’s just another cheap way to try to bring excitement by pitting two brothers against each other when we all really know that Ken will probably lose.

Post from: EveryJoe

Ken Vs. Frank Shamrock Coming April ‘09

Kimbo Slice

What’s funny is that people kept saying that Slice didn’t have a whole lot of cage credibility and if he were to beat Ken Shamrock, his credibility would have gone up because he would have won over a bigger name in the business instead of some of the other fighters he’s gone up against. This was Kimbo’s big fight, but in reality it was just a big loss with a big paycheck. Kimbo would have earned another 100 grand had he not got defeated. I’d be willing to bet Kimbo may take a cut in pay after the flop.

Image used with permission from Newscom.com

Post from: EveryJoe

Kimbo Slice Earned 500K…And Lost

The fight started out as Slice makes his way towards Seth. Seth throws a front kick and a right jab that catches Slice on the left eyebrow as slice tried throwing a punch or two.  Slice just couldn’t recover from there. Petruzelli rolls him over for the mount and starts raining down rights to Slice’s head. after about 6 or 7 hits the ref stops the fight and Petruzelli wins in 14 seconds.

After the fight both fighters were humble and good sportsmen and Slice even get’s a rise out of his home state crowd of FT. Lauderdale Florida by saying that they need to give respect for all the MMA fighters tonight.

One of the commentators said that Kimbo should get a mulligan because he was expecting to fight Shamrock and trained for Shamrock. So dude…your saying since he trained for a professional fighting veteran he should get a mulligan for losing to a much younger and much more inexperienced fighter. Whatever.

Kimbo Slice leaves the cage with his first loss.

Post from: EveryJoe

Seth Petruzelli Did What Shamrock Didn’t