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411 Fact or Fiction MMA: Does Brock Lesnar’s Exemption Undermine the UFC’s PED Policies?

June 15, 2016 | Posted by Lorenzo Vasquez
Brock Lesnar USADA Image Credit: UFC

Welcome back to another edition of 411 Fact or Fiction MMA! I’m host, Lorenzo Vasquez III, and I hope you enjoyed last week’s edition of the fact or fiction in the mixed martial arts biosphere. As always, thank you for your votes and comments, it is much appreciated. Last week, we paid respect to both Kimbo Slice and Muhammad Ali who have now joined the big jam in the sky. Rest in peace you both, and keep a watchful eye on us all from above. In the same edition, Jeffrey Harris crossed paths with Jonathan Butterfield in what turned out to be a back and forth affair. Both men held close leads at various times as they ventured into subjects regarding Brock Lesnar’s return at UFC 200, Muhammad Ali’s legacy in MMA, and Michael Bisping’s championship title win among other things. When it was all said and done, the contest had terminated in a draw. Well done Jeffrey and Jonathan, you both put forth an extraordinary effort.

And now, onto this week’s duel, featuring Scott Kuczkowski and Stewart Lange! Let’s get ready for another edition as both men divide right into subjects dealing with Brock Lesnar securing a USADA exemption, Ariel Helwani’s UFC ban, Michael Bisping’s first title defense and much more! So strap in, grab something to munch on, and get ready because it’s time for another round of, 411 Fact or Fiction MMA!. Let’s get the ball rolling…

TALE OF THE TAPE
RED CORNER
Scott “Kuch” Kuczkowski
Contributor, 411 MMA Zone
0-0-0

VS

BLUE CORNER
Stewart Lange
Contributor, 411 Games Zone
0-0-0

The UFC granting Brock Lesnar a USADA exemption from a four month period of drug testing for a returning retired fighter, undermines the promotions attempts at cleaning up the sport and the entire legitimacy of the program.

Scott Kuczkowski: FICTION This is stupid. Brock Lesnar wasn’t a UFC contracted fighter during the entire four month period leading up to UFC 200, so testing him four months prior to that would be impossible. Are people expecting the UFC to hold off booking him until after four month’s worth of testing has been done? That’s ridiculous. Lesnar is undergoing testing now, which is all that really matters. In the grand scheme of things, this is a minute detail and apparently something the UFC foresaw becoming an issue, because they had a plan in place in case such a thing occurred. I’m guessing this is the same exemption that a non-UFC fighter receives when he/she is a short-notice fill-in. Either way, this is stupid and really a non-issue.

Stewart Lange FICTION Now, I’m kind of basing this on one report I’ve read rather than actually gathering every scrap of information I can possible find, but Brock is still going to be (and I’m 99% sure I saw that he has been) tested already for the fight. It seems to me this is only a big deal for this fight because Mark Hunt has made it so. How many late replacement fighters get tested four months out? Granted, there’s a difference between Donald Cerrone fighting 9 times a year or Alex Cesares (ugh) stepping up at last minute for his recent UFC 199 fight as those guys are constantly in the drug testing cycle (not to be confused with the cycling of drugs). As long as Lesnar pisses clean in the tests he does take, then I don’t think anything is undermined.

https://twitter.com/TheLadBible/status/740574223513485313

Considering, Kimbo Slice competed a little over three months ago and was scheduled to compete again in a manner of weeks, and was suffering from congestive heart failure putting him in dire need of a heart transplant before his untimely death, makes Zach Light’s accusations that Bellator “forged” and “falsified” fighter medicals more concerning.

Scott Kuczkowski: FACT But truth be told, I don’t know how closely the medical evaluations look at a fighter’s heart. On the surface, this seems like damning evidence that Bellator does whatever it can to get fighters in the cage, potentially even when they shouldn’t be. Maybe Bellator knew about Kimbo’s condition and helped hide it so he could make some money. I doubt we’ll ever know for sure. Is anything going to be done about this? The only way this will be fixed is if an athletic commission begins to investigate Bellator to see if they have been falsifying paperwork. Short of that, this should be a wakeup call to other Bellator contracted fighters that they may not be getting screened for injuries or illness as thoroughly as they believed. Either way, it would surprise me if his condition wasn’t discovered during his last pre-fight physical.

Stewart Lange FACT Yeah, I’d say that it likely does. How many times do you hear about certain issues being discovered through standard medicals or check ups in other professions? I mean, I don’t really know how stringent the Bellator medical tests are, or what scope they would even have to falsify these documents but it certainly looks bad enough on them that there should be some sort of investigation, even if it’s just for appearances sake?

Ariel Helwani getting banned for breaking news on Brock Lesnar’s return and Diaz vs. McGregor II, although short-lived, should be concerning for reporters and journalist in a position similar to his with regards to covering the UFC.

Scott Kuczkowski: FICTION This was a really weird situation, but I don’t think it’s something that other reporters have to worry about. MMA, and especially the UFC, will take a really big hit if they lose the buzz of the media. Closing the door on reporters and treating them adversely is not something that ever looks good for a company, so the UFC needs to tread carefully in the future. From what I understand, this may not be the first time that Helwani has been at odds with the UFC brass over a story he was going to report on, so there may be a history here that exacerbated the situation. Either way, the UFC needs to understand that it really needs reporters interested in their future plans, because that basically translates into their fans also being interested. No one wants to be part of a business where no one cares about its future. While the UFC may want to divulge their “big plans” on their own schedule, sometimes they won’t have a choice.

Stewart Lange FICTION The whole situation with Ariel Helwani is an absolute joke. If the UFC is going to share news like that with a room of JOURNALISTS (payroll or not, not touching that issue right now) then they need to be getting some kind of secrecy agreement signed. The way the UFC acted on this occasion was a total nonsense though; especially, that within two or three days it was as if nothing had happened. Ultimately, if the UFC wants to make these kind of surprise announcements themselves, then the absolute minimum number of people need to know. Dana, the matchmaking guys and the dude who cut Lesnar into the UFC 200 promo package and that way the secret would’ve remained safe. The hits that MMAFighting would’ve received on this one will have made the saga worth it for Helwani, I think.

SWITCH!

Anthony Pettis’ move to featherweight is just the shift the former lightweight champion needed, considering his run as a title contender in the lightweight division is likely over for the time being.

Stewart Lange FACT While time will ultimately tell, I think Pettis is in the sort of position that we saw Benson Henderson in before he flew the UFC coop. He’s a talented former champion, but he’s not really the kind of guy anyone gets excited for anymore. Considering his reputation, nickname and highlight reel, that is a sin and a move to featherweight could be really beneficial for Pettis. While I’m not convinced he beats Edgar or Aldo at 145 at this stage, a fight against McGregor should he come back to 145lbs without a win against Diaz OR the belt would be an extremely marketable fight for the UFC, assuming Pettis wins his divisional debut and Conor comes back to featherweight with his tail between his legs a little bit. A check of the UFC rankings suggests to me Pettis’ skill should see him happily in the same sort of position he was at lightweight (7th), and I’d love to see him be smashed by take on Max Holloway.

Scott Kuczkowski: FICTION The only thing this will do is give Pettis a few more fights in the UFC. Pettis is currently riding a 3 fight losing streak and he hasn’t looked particularly impressive in any of those fights. The issue is that when pressured and wrestled, Pettis doesn’t have much of an answer. Frankly, he’s been scouted; fighters now know what they have to do to beat him. No matter what weight he fights at, he’s going to need to plug those holes in his game or he’s going to find himself looking for a new home. Moving to Featherweight may provide him a few more chances, but if he loses two more fights, I see him getting his walking papers.

Michael Bisping versus Dan Henderson is the best option for the Brit’s first title defense, as far as back story and attracting higher buyrates, etc is concerned.

Stewart Lange FICTION A million times no thanks. I have zero interest in seeing this fight, but not because Bisping is a British hero and Henderson is the evil American who smashed his face through the mat 400 years ago, but first of all, Dan Henderson is now ranked at 12th at Middleweight. If he gets the next title bout, just do away with the ranking system (despite the fact we all know it’s essentially meaningless). Secondly, Dan Henderson continuing to fight at his point is beyond me. 411’s own Jeffrey Harris wrote a superb article about it (that I can’t remember how to link to, it’s been a while) and it’s hard to disagree with the fact that Henderson had the perfect opportunity to pick his own retirement and leave the sport on a massive high. There is no reason to risk his health, safety and family life for a fight against anyone in the game, assuming he can afford it. Plus, if he wins, then that’s him fighting again. It’ll be like Ric Flair’s retirement tour, where his next loss would mark his retirement…… Actually, that doesn’t sound terrible now I’ve said it. My Fiction stands.

Scott Kuczkowski: FICTION This is kind of a hard one. If the goal is to give Hendo a chance to land that big H bomb again, and maybe retire as the UFC Champ, then this would be the way to go. Sure, the storyline is there and I’m sure both guys would agree to the fight, but the issue is that seven years have passed since UFC 100, and Hendo isn’t the same fighter he was back then. Plus, I think Bisping is actually a smarter fighter now, so I doubt he’ll make those same mistakes again. For me, I’d rather see Bisping fight either Rockhold or Weidman because those two have been fighting longer at the top of the division. Plus, Bisping vs. Weidman is actually a fresh matchup and could tell us a lot about how good Weidman actually is.

While, the WWE may be lending Brock Lesnar to the UFC as leverage to acquire Ronda Rousey for Wrestlemania, it is highly unlikely the UFC brass will return the favor and grant Rousey permission to be cast in a large role for the WWE.

Stewart Lange FICTION Now, I’m not sure if the word Rousey is anywhere in the Lesnar/UFC/WWE contract agreement, but I’d be absolutely amazed if it’s not been brought up. So, with that in mind, it’s either been raised already and completely shut down during negotiations, so they won’t need to say no later. The second scenario is that it was raised, Rousey performing for the WWE has been agreed upon and there’s enough secrecy involved (see question 3) that it won’t leak until she walks out the curtain during Summerslam/Raw/Sunday Night Heat. The third option is that it wasn’t brought up and the WWE are going to wait until they are able to call a favour and while it’s unlikely the UFC would be too happy about a physical role, I’m sure the “large role” specified in the question doesn’t have to mean in-ring competition. Fourth scenario is that it’s been agreed and then the UFC renege on any agreement that may be in place unless it’s on a fully legal document (ie- a verbal agreement that wasn’t documented or something, don’t know what the US law does with something like that) and then bad blood between the companies triggers a massive war that sees the UFC putting on live shows between 8pm and 11pm (EST) every Monday night until the WWE buys them out and sets the main event of Raw as Alex Cesares against Darren Elkins and kills the UFC right there in that moment.

Damn, you should all vote for me just for my fantasy booking scenarios.

Scott Kuczkowski: FICTION I think the UFC will let Ronda do whatever she wants so long as she signals to them that there is a potential that she will return to fighting. Right now, she is cashing in on her fame in Hollywood and having fun not getting punched in the face, so I wonder if she needs to return to fighting at all. Still, I imagine that if she told Dana that she wanted to do an extended stint with the WWE, they wouldn’t have a problem with it if she gave them an approximate date when she would return to the octagon. Right now, Ronda doesn’t really need the UFC and the UFC is coasting just fine without Ronda. I’m sure they would love to cash in on her return, but I think they’ll be patient and let her do her own thing for now.

So who won? Did Scott trample over Stewart? Or, did Stewart light up Scott with 1-2 combinations? You’ve got until midnight eastern on Saturday to vote, so make sure you make your voice heard!

And that’s it for today, but as always, we’ll be back next week with another contest! And please, be sure to vote!

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