Nate Diaz (photo via UFC)

By FCF Staff

UFC veteran Nate Diaz is facing disciplinary action from the promotion after directing a homophobic slur towards Bryan Caraway this afternoon via Twitter.

Diaz apparently tweeted the following about Pat Healy’s recent positive test for marijuana, which resulted in having his UFC 159 victory over Jim Miller changed to a no-contest.

I feel bad for pat Healy that they took a innocent mans money and I think the guy who took the money is the biggest Fag in the world ..

Caraway was awarded the UFC 159, “Submission of the Night” and $65,000 this week after Healy became exempt for the award because of his positive test. Healy was initially given the bonus for his third round, rear-naked-choke finish of Miller.

Caraway submitted Johnny Bedford at the April 27th event with a third round guillotine choke.

MMA Junkie.com’s John Morgan reported via Twitter that UFC President Dana White has informed him that Diaz will be fined, suspended or even cut for the tweet.

Pat Healy is the latest fighter to test positive for marijuana in his system

By Jesse Heitz

Pat Healy, fresh off of his thumping of Jim Miller at UFC 159, has been suspended for testing positive for Marijuana. According to reports, Healy apparently failed his post-fight drug screening. Healy is far from being alone. In the last year or so, the UFC in particular, has seen its fair share of marijuana related suspensions

Healy’s transgressions are sure to cost him a pretty penny. For his brilliant win at UFC 159, Healy pocketed a cool $152,500 for under three rounds of work against Jim Miller. The problem is that only $17,500 was guaranteed. The other $135,000 was wrapped up in win, fight of the night, and submission of the night bonuses. With the New Jersey Athletic Control Board handing Healy not only a 90-day suspension, but overturned his win, ruling it a no-contest. Poof, and just like that, $135,000 is rescinded all because a professional fighter had smoked some marijuana, “socially” of course, leading up to his fight with Miller

Healy posted an official statement, which can be found here at Full Contact Fighter, that reads as follows,

“I would like to start off by apologizing to the UFC, Jim Miller, the MMA community, its fans, my family, teammates and coaches for my positive testing for marijuana after my UFC 159 fight with Jim Miller. I was fully aware of the UFC and State Commissions drug policies and made poor life choices. I stand behind the UFC and State Commission’s disciplinary actions. I support efforts to make MMA and sports a clean, safe and fair place to compete.

“First and foremost, I would like to acknowledge and take responsibility for my mistake. I made a very poor choice to socially use marijuana and now I must face the consequences of that choice. I can assure you that I will do everything the UFC and State Commission asks of me and beyond. I will also make a conscious effort to be a better role model within the MMA community.”

In the last year or so, we’ve seen a number of UFC fighters, and one prominent referee, come up limping after dabbling in marijuana. Matt Riddle, Nick Diaz, Robbie Peralta, Thiago Silva, and Dave Herman, have all been pinched for smoking weed, and subsequently suspended. A few months ago referee Josh Rosenthal was literally pinched by federal law enforcement, and faces up to ten years in federal prison for running a professional growing operation which possessed some 1,300 marijuana plants. This is not to say that the usage of marijuana by fighters even remotely comes close to felonious intent to distribute, but it does show how rampant the marijuana problem is.

Regarding the widespread use of marijuana in his organization, UFC President Dana White once said,

“Everybody thinks that if you did this random testing you’d catch so many guys on PEDs. No, you’d catch more of the guys on marijuana. That’s where you’d really bust a lot of guys. So [we've got] 475 guys under contract and 400 of them would be out with marijuana [suspensions].

Forget about PEDs. If we get into this random testing you guys are talking about, you know how many guys would probably test positive for marijuana? It would probably be off the charts.”

I’m no great anti-marijuana crusader. I personally have no problems with people using it. However, as it stands it happens to be a drug that is illegal by an overwhelming number of states, and is banned by every athletic commission. With that said, I for one can’t fathom why a professional fighter, who needs to compete and win to keep food on the table would smoke marijuana right before he is scheduled to participate in a widely-watched mainstream MMA event, an event that is known to feature drug testing no less. Is it stupidity or ignorance, or a simple lack of caring, or did the flush kit not work?

Sonnen

Roy Nelson to Fight Daniel Cormier or Mark Hunt

By FCF Staff

Immediately after being overpowered by UFC light-Heavyweight champ Jon Jones at UFC 159, Chael Sonnen hinted in his post-fight interview with Joe Rogan that his fighting career may be over. During the post-fight presser, the former middleweight contender relayed that he’ll take some time before any decision is made.

When asked to expand on his future in fighting, Sonnen stated he’s not ready to make up his mind yet, but expressed concerns as to what could be next. Since he’s already fought middleweight champion Anderson Silva twice, and now Jones, he added “what are they going to do with me? Put me in with Anderson Silva?” (Quote via MMA Junkie.com).

Speaking of Jones and Silva,  according to multiple reports, UFC President Dana White revealed at the post-fight presser that the middleweight champion called him last night to request a “super fight.” While White wouldn’t confirm whether Silva called regarding Jones or welterweight champion Georges St. Pierre, it’s interesting that the renowned fighter would do so, the same night Jones stopped his longtime rival Sonnen.

Of course, Silva has to get by rising middleweight Chris Weidman first, which will take place on July 6th.

One of the card’s highlights was Roy Nelson’s first round stoppage of Cheick Kongo, which prompted the heavyweight to call for a title shot. While White isn’t ready to declare Nelson as the top contender, he confirmed that Daniel Cormier or Mark Hunt will be the powerful slugger’s next opponent.

Cormier responded via Twitter to White’s proposal by stating that the bout “would be a damn good fight.”

Hunt is scheduled to fight former champ Junior dos Santos at UFC 160 on May 25th.

Reigning UFC Middleweight Champion Anderson Silva (photo via UFC.com)

By FCF Staff

It appears as though fans can look forward to many more fights from Anderson Silva, as the renowned UFC Middleweight Champion is close to signing a reported, 10 fight deal extension.

According to multiple reports, UFC President Dana White relayed this week in New York that the contract extension for the 38 year-old-fighter is “going to get done.”

Of course, due to the fact Silva is almost 40 years old, it remains to be seen whether the champion will in fact fight out the contract, as White reportedly noted. No details regarding whether the contract has a time limit were provided.

Silva (33-4) is preparing for a July 6th tilt with rising star Chris Weidman (9-0), which will headline UFC 162 in Las Vegas. The champion will bring an awe inspiring 17 fight win streak into the bout.

UFC President Dana White

By Joshua Molina

Dana White and Bob Sapp are two legends of MMA for entirely different reasons.

Yet, they have so much in common.

And it’s more than just the fact that they are both bald and that people turn their heads when they walk by.

While UFC’s White was busy blasting Jon Jones, Greg Jackson, Lyoto Machida, Frank Shamrock, Roy Nelson and 15-year-old hackers, (and that’s just in the last couple of weeks), his real enemy was pummeling him senseless.

At the Thomas and Mack Center in Las Vegas in front of more than 14,000 people Saturday night, Sergio Martinez upset Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. for the WBC middleweight championship. The fight aired on HBO Pay Per View and was covered by media outlets ranging from the Los Angeles Times and Sports Illustrated to the Wall Street Journal and USA Today.

It’s trouble for the self-proclaimed king of combat sports when a Pay Per View boxing card not involving Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather Jr. dominates Saturday night and Sunday morning news coverage. Julio Cesar Chavez was trending on Google Sunday morning.

It shows that mainstream sports writers still love boxing and don’t need a loud-mouthed, overly tight t-shirt-wearing man who can’t fight for real to hype fights in order to get their attention.

In case White forgot, sometimes sports writers like to focus on fighters. The boxing show came one week before the UFC 152, when Jon Jones will defend his light heavyweight championship against Vitor Belfort, in a battle that has received significant mainstream attention for all the wrong reasons.

White should think about stepping out of the limelight for six months and focusing on the business-end of his shows. Even if it is just a symbolic move, he needs to let the fighters build up fights among themselves, without throwing himself into the mix.

At this point, the biggest fight most MMA fans would want to see is Dana White vs. anybody.

Since that can’t happen because White isn’t a fighter, he needs to stop flapping his gums and be the businessman he is.

He needs to resist his impulse to open his mouth and criticize anybody and everybody who crosses him just because they will listen.

His bombastic, obnoxious, overly-confident, “it’s-all-about-me,” mentality isn’t helping the great sport of MMA right now.

White is overexposed. Just like someone else we know.

MMA fighter, (can he even be called that?) Bob Sapp lost his 10th fight in a row last night in Siberia. He has a 22-31 record and has lost in 14 out of his last 17 fights. He was once a big draw, for reasons that are unclear, but Sapp for years has been a joke and stain on the sport of MMA.

Promoters need to stop paying this guy.

There’s a market out there to see Sapp because he’s huge and charismatic. Even though he’s been knocked out and submitted multiple times, like a car crash and Dana White, fans can’t help but watch. It’s always funny to see someone much smaller knockout the humongous, but slow Sapp.

Sapp needs to retire forever from all aspects of the sport. White just needs to retire from the public eye temporarily and let the fighters step into the limelight.  But they both need to go away to help the sport.

UFC President Dana White

By Joshua Molina
UFC boss Dana White spun a funny zinger on The Jim Rome Show in response to Jon Jones’ recent comments that he “felt like a piece of meat” during the UFC 151 cancellation controversy.

White snapped “I wonder how that piece of meat was feeling when we bought him that Bentley.”

Two big egos barking at each other over who they think is the bigger jerk.

We know what Frank Shamrock thinks. Shamrock, the outspoken, brash, lesser-known, but more successful adopted younger brother of UFC icon Ken Shamrock, once again blasted white, accusing the UFC revolutionary of “bringing down MMA.”

On bjpenn.com radio, Shamrock blasted White, accusing him of putting himself before the fighters and the sport, and for verbally thumping Jones for his decision not to fight Chael Sonnen instead of the injured Dan Henderson at UFC 151.

“The guy who has made himself the star of MMA is the biggest douche bag and loudmouth on the planet and he’s bringing the entire industry down,” Shamrock said.

Shamrock was the UFC’s first light heavyweight champion, but he left the promotion before it got super-big in 2005. Shamrock won the Strikeforce middleweight title and made some good money fighting the likes of Cung Le and Nick Diaz, before retiring and now enjoying a second career as an analyst for Showtime MMA events.

As Shamrock knows, it’s hard to argue with White about the state of the sport because his comeback to every criticism is always something like, “we built this (expletive) sport. We know what we are doing.”

White is either the most confident man in the world or the biggest BS-er, as seen in this interview with the WSJ from May of this year.

By the way, young MMA multimedia journalists, don’t act like interviewer if you ever get to interview White.

The interviewer doesn’t even remotely challenge White or Fertitta in any way, and looks more like a 12-year-old girl interviewing Justin Bieber than a sports journalist. At one point, the interviewer calls White, “brother.”
White had the audacity to say that “globally, we’re bigger than the NFL.” It’s tough to argue logically with someone who says those kinds of things.

White in the interview also says that there’s never been a death in the Octagon, in the UFC’s near 20-year history.

It’s funny to see White reference the 20-year history of the NFL when it benefits him, but disregard it when it doesn’t benefit him.

For example, one of White’s big excuses for not wanting to induct Frank Shamrock into the UFC Hall of Fame is because Shamrock “never did anything for the current UFC,” since it became popular.

Zuffa purchased the UFC in 2001. Shamrock competed in the UFC from 1993 to 1998, including a big submission victory over Tito Ortiz. It’s OK for White to claim the history back to 1993 when it makes him look good, but he apparently thinks it’s OK to ignore it when it doesn’t.

The UFC injury plague continued yesterday, forcing both Jose Aldo (pictured) and Rampage Jackson to withdraw from their respective UFC 153 bouts

By Joshua Molina

Injuries continue to rock the UFC.

Jose Aldo and Quentin “Rampage” Jackson are out of UFC 153 in Rio de Janeiro, the latest card to get wrecked by fighter injuries.

Injuries happen in every sport, but the bottom line is this: The UFC has too many pay per view cards, and not enough fighters to sustain the company’s rapid pace of shows. There isn’t enough depth on the roster to book cards with more than just one or two marquee matches.

As was the case with Dan Henderson and UFC 151, when a top fighter gets injured, the whole show crumbles.

The UFC also lives in a fantasy world in that it acts as though the best fighters in the world only work in the UFC. Considering that the UFC owns Strikeforce, it’s too bad that contracts prevent fighters from switching brands to fight one another.
Dana White mission to preserve the exclusivity of the UFC brand has hurt the sport overall.

By the way, White needs to stop acting like a teenage boy (dropping those tight T-shirts wouldn’t hurt either). His tweet after he heard that Rampage Jackson was injured and unable to fight was absurd. White tweeted, “Rampage is hurt and out of UFC 153 RIO. SUCKS!!!!!!”

Social media is great and all, but White needs show better and more poised leadership during times of crisis. If he expects Jon Jones or any of the fighters on his roster to act more professionally he needs to lead by example. White’s legacy will be measured by how he handles the UFC over the next 12 months, not how he managed the company when the product was super hot and fans would pay to see any two men step in the cage.

The MMA audience is getting smarter to how the management side of the UFC works, and the mainstream audience is dropping off.

. . . Speaking of social media, Big Dave Bautista is acting like he’s super-hyped for his MMA debut on Oct. 6. He tweeted “Can’t (expletive) wait for my #MMA debut.”

Bautista will face Rashid Evans on a Classic Entertainment and Sports Promotions Network show. Bautista, at 43 years old, will make his debut against Rashid Evans, who at 33 years old appears to also be making his MMA debut, although he’s had four amateur fights. Evans’ amateur record is either 1-2 and or 3-1, depending on where you look.
He can be seen here in a youtube clip knocking out his opponent in 10 seconds.

Here’s the truth about Bautista. He has a million-dollar body, but looks don’t tell the whole story. In pro wrestling he was slow, largely immobile and injury prone. He’s torn his tricep muscles at least four times, one of which happened after a fall while jogging.

Who knows what will happen when the 43-year-old Bautista makes an MMA debut. If he gets hit on the chin, he will probably get knocked out.

Rashid has gone three rounds in amateur fights at least two times, so we know he is in cage shape to go the distance. Bautista isn’t the best that pro wrestling has to offer in MMA, but at least he has the guts to try the sport, even at his advanced age.

Bautista’s former pro wrestling peer Jerry “The King” Lawler made national headlines on Monday after he passed out from a heart attack on a live edition of Monday Night Raw, which recently broadcast its 1,000 consecutive weekly episode.

Although pro wrestling is scripted, Lawler is known in wrestling circles as a legitimate tough guy. He must be, at 62, he wrestled Monday night prior to passing out. Lawler is most famous for slapping Andy Kaufman on the old David Letterman show in the 1980s.

Lawler has been the voice of the WWE for so long that he has called just about every Ken Shamrock and Dan Severn match, when the two both turned to professionally wrestling in the 1990s. Lawler’s condition is unclear, but he remains in a Canadian hospital and after he was revived by medical personnel.

Here’s Lawler calling a worked match between Ken Shamrock and The Rock and Lawler calling a triple threat match between Dan Severn, Ken Shamrock and Owen Hart.

UFC President Dana White

By Joshua Molina

Dana White as Steve Jobs?

That’s ridiculous.

Yahoo! sportswriter Kevin Iole made the hilarious comparison in a recent column titled “Sport in transition: UFC’s roster of bright stars dimmed by injuries, retirement.”

Here’s what Iole wrote: “White has done in these last 11 years to lead that surge is as remarkable in its own way as what the late Steve Jobs did in masterminding Apple’s rebound from near-extinction after his return to the then-troubled computer manufacturer in 1997.”

Really? That’s taking the MMA media’s butt-kissing of White to a whole new level.
Apple products have revolutionized the world. White can’t even get MMA legalized in the biggest city in the country, New York.

Does Iole feel the same way about Vince McMahon Jr., who turned ‘wrassling’ into pro wrestling a global brand and empire, far more successful and tenured than the UFC. Does he feel that way about Mark Zuckerberg, the famous founder of Facebook? What about Ty Warner, who created Beanie Babies and turned them into a multibillion-dollar franchise and lucrative hotel and real estate franchise?

There’s a big difference between being successful and being Steve Jobs. There’s a big difference between being Dana White and Steve Jobs.

White obviously is a successful man with proven business skills. He and UFC majority owners, Lorenzo and Frank Fertitta, were the saviors of the UFC. But White is a hothead who yells at his fighters, the media, fans and anyone else who disagrees with him. Jobs was charismatic, solutions-oriented, computer scientist.

White is great at what he does, but the MMA media embarrasses itself by its inability to challenge White on his many business foibles that have not been great for the sport (such as attempting to humiliate Jon Jones, one of his biggest cash cows).

White’s legacy is unfinished. If he can grow the UFC’s popularity amongst the mainstream, or even keep it as is in 2013, that would do a lot to cement his legacy as an MMA revolutionary. Legacies aren’t just measured on how well you do during the good times; they are measured by how well business people survive during the bad times.

Iole’s column was funny for a another reason.

In the past year, a growing number of people have been reading an exciting, relaunched Full Contact Fighter, “The Original, Undefeated MMA News Source, Established in 1997.”

Iole may be one of them.

His gushing story about White resembled a recent Full Contact Fighter story (without the gushing), titled “Full Contact Fighter’s “The Daily Takedown:” After Brock, MMA Needs New Mainstream Stars – Right Now,” published Sept. 3, four days before Iole’s.

Now Iole is a respected, veteran sports writer who covers MMA and boxing. No one is accusing him of stealing the story idea, but the stories are pretty similar.
Both stories explain that in order for the UFC to continue its growth, it will need to appeal to more than just the hardcore MMA audience.

Big, crossover stars are essential to making the sport bigger than life. As stars age and retire, UFC needs a new generation of big stars to appeal to the public, otherwise it will return to just a moderately successful business venture (not like Apple).

Iole ends the column defending the UFC with this statement:

“That has led some to speculate that the MMA boom is on the decline. That doesn’t jibe, though, with the rock-star status that UFC fighters receive when they’re in public.”

That’s also ridiculous. What UFC fighters is he talking about? There isn’t a UFC fighter on the planet who gets a “rock-star status” in public. Brock Lesnar gets a huge reaction in public, but that’s because of his WWE career, and he’s no longer in the UFC.

The only UFC personality who would get even close to rock-star status is Dana White himself, because he has made himself the sport’s biggest star, another reason why he should not be compared to Steve Jobs.

UFC President Dana White

By Joshua Molina

If you turn down fights in the UFC, you are gonna pay for it.

UFC president Dana White has made that clear – once again. Now the brash boss of the UFC has declared that Lyota Machida is no longer in line to fight for the Light Heavyweight Championship.

Machida is one of the many fighters on his s#&t list after he declined to fight Jon Jones on Sept. 22. After Henderson pulled out of the Jones fight with an injury, White declared to the media that Machida was the next in line for a title shot.
But White actually hadn’t spoken with Machida about that yet. Machida nixed it, saying he needed more time to prepare for the cat-like Jones. It looks like Machida may have a lot more time to prepare for Jones.

Now, Jones is fighting Vitor Belfort on Sept. 22 and Machida is on the outside looking in. If (when) Jones gets past Belfort, the likely next opponent will be Chael Sonnen, who even thought he has never fought in the light heavyweight division, earned major points with White when he said he would fight Jones on eight days notice on Sept. 1.

Jones, of course, didn’t want to fight Chael, the only man to beat Anderson Silva five out of seven rounds and have nothing to show for it.

The other big possibility is Daniel Cormier as Jones next opponent. If (when) Cormier gets past an aging Frank Mir, Cormier may move down to light heavyweight and probably give Jones the beating Dana White would like him to get.
In the meantime, all eyes are on Belfort and whether he can pull off what would be one of the greatest upsets in mixed martial arts history.

It’s entertaining to see how quickly guys get title shots in the middleweight division in the new, Zuffa-owned Strikeforce. On one hand you have Luke Rockhold, one of the best fighters in the world, but he doesn’t really have any top challengers in his division.

Strikeforce announced that the Santa Cruz surfer Rockhold will take on Lorenz Larkin. Larkin looked fantastic in his last fight – a three round unanimous decision over the one-dimensional Robbie Lawler. But in the fight before that he was KO’d by Muhammad “King Mo” Lawal. Technically Larkin is undefeated because his loss to King Mo was declared a no contest after Mo failed a drug test.

Because of the dearth of talent left in Strikeforce, Larkin will get a title shot, and a chance to derail Rockhold, one of the sport’s brightest young stars. Rockhold should feel lucky that he doesn’t have to stop immediately back into the cage against Jacare Souza, who was rumored to get a rematch against the man who beat him for the gold.

Souza has more weapons than Larkin, so Rockhold, who punished Tim Kennedy in a five-round unanimous decision victory in his last fight, should be the favorite against Larkin who is still growing as a fighter.

The other news out of Strikeforce this week is the signing of Sara McMann, an Olympic silver medalist in wrestling. McMann also competes for Invicta FC. The writing on the wall here is clear. McMann will likely get fed to Ronda Rousey, an Olympic bronze medalist in Judo, as her next challenger for the Strikeforce bantamweight championship, in a fight that would showcase to Olympic medalists fighting inside the Strikeforce cage.

Is a UFC comeback on the horizon for Brock Lesnar?

By Joshua Molina

Brock vs. Fedor?
There’s serious talk of the monumental fight on the internet after UFC boss Dana White asked fans on an MMA website if that was a fight they wanted to see.

That fight would be a great King Kong vs. Godzilla matchup, but unfortunately White is years too late and again not credible if he decides to promote the fight.

White has famously blasted Fedor Emelianenko publicly, saying he is a farce, overhyped and not one of the greatest fighters of all time. Fedor was undefeated for a decade and is widely regarded by everyone other than White as one of the best MMA fighters, if not the best of all time. He lost three times, however, in 2010 and 2011, and his aura of invincibility disappeared.

Fedor tapped out to Fabricio Werdum, in a fight that he was winning, until he made a foolish mistake, put his head down, and got caught in a triangle choke. He was then knocked out by Antonio “Bigfoot” Silva, perhaps the most embarrassing of his three losses.

Fedor losing to Bigfoot was worse than Mike Tyson losing to Kevin McBride at the end of his career. In their primes, Silva really is nowhere near Fedor’s league.

Finally Fedor was knocked out by Dan Henderson, in another poor outing where he made a mental mistake in the match and let Henderson come back and KO him. Fedor finished his career with three solid wins against three easy opponents.

There’s really no mystery around Lesnar either. He been knocked out badly by Cain Velasquez and Alistair Overeem. He also tapped out to a much smaller Frank Mir. Lesnar can’t take a heavyweight punch. The last time he stepped in the cage he looked like a scared, beaten man just collecting a paycheck – before he ever stepped in the cage.

And since Fedor never fought in the UFC, White has done his best to humiliate and tarnish the man’s legacy, even ripping on Fedor’s fans. The UFC and Fedor’s management company, M-1 Global nearly reached a deal, but M-1 Global wanted co-promotion control of Fedor’s fight, and White and the UFC weren’t giving up control.

Should the fight ever happen, it will be entertaining to see and hear White try to promote the man he vilified the last few years.

As for the fight, it would go something like this. Lesnar would rush Fedor swinging, throwing punches. If Lesnar didn’t knock him out in the first minute, Lesnar, if he got close enough to Fedor, he would take him down, try to mount him and move into the ground and pound and probably TKO Fedor in about two minutes. If Fedor could connect on the chin, just one time, as Lesnar is throwing wildy, he’d probably KO Lesnar in under a minute.

This fight would have been epic – had the UFC done what was best for business three years ago – and booked the two fighters before they were both KO’d multiple times. No one is going to be surprised to see Fedor or Lesnar lose again. It would be a huge, sad spectacle.

But if the UFC is in fact about to jump the shark, it’s likely that White and the UFC will be looking to book more spectacle, gimmicky matches to hold interest.

Contact reporter Joshua Molina at jmolina@fcfighter.com. Or follow him on Twitter at https://twitter.com/JoshuaMolinaMMA

Ronda Rousey (left) has made her opinion on the Jon Jones-UFC situation clear. Photo Credit: Esther Lin/Showtime

By Joshua Molina

Not too surprisingly, Ronda Rousey agrees with UFC president Dana White.

She also believes Jon Jones should have fought Chael Sonnen on eight days notice.

Rousey, who smashed Sarah Kaufman two weeks ago in 54 seconds, told ESPN this:

“I don’t know what Jon Jones’ reasoning is, but I’d have made a different decision,” Rousey told espn.com.