Tuesday, August 18 4:20 pm PT: Japan: land of opportunity for men who don’t get along with athletic commissions. Sherdog reports that Nick Diaz, ousted from Saturday’s Strikeforce card due to failure to appear for a drug test, is considering an October DREAM date, possibly against Hayato "Mach" Sakurai.
That’s swell, but the real interest comes in a mention that the California State Athletic Commission is investigating something called a “Therapeutic Usage Exemption Program,” which would collude with physicians to allow athletes with valid reasons for using banned substances to compete.
Tuesday, August 18 2:14 pm PT: Television spins numbers with the expertise of politicians. There is never, ever a cut-and-dried answer on success or failure because too many variables exist.
Case in point: Spike’s recent trumpeting that their re-broadcast of July 11’s UFC 100 event last Saturday pummeled “Strikeforce: Carano vs. ‘Cyborg’” in “the advertiser-coveted demographic” of males 18-34 (513,000 UFC viewers vs. 181,000 for Strikeforce). According to MMAJunkie, the UFC’s two million overall audience snickered at the 576,000 suckers watching Showtime. (I’m paraphrasing. They were more polite about it.)
It’s a seemingly obvious victory for the bigger, stronger promotion -- particularly considering their product came pre-spoiled -- but when you consider that Showtime is available in only one-fifth of the households as Spike and nabbed a similar share of their available viewership, it becomes substantially less impressive.
Tuesday, August 18 12:17 pm PT: Bouncing himself from a fight with Muhammad Lawal August 28 for undisclosed reasons, Five Ounces of Pain reports that Don Frye has agreed to face promising heavyweight Dave Herman at Shark Fights 6 in Amarillo, Texas on September 12.
This space’s fondness for aging veterans taking on younger, faster fighters is well-documented at this point. (Pithy version: it sucks.) The 44-year-old Frye should be fighting osteoporosis, not a 6’5”, 24-year-old with ten first-round stoppages to his credit. Tough, old and stubborn is a bad combination.
Tuesday, August 18 9:00 am PT: More free advertising for Vaseline: the Wrestling Observer was first to report that Japanese fighter Mitsuhiro Ishida, who was stopped in the third round by Strikeforce interim lightweight champion Gilbert Melendez on Saturday, is alleging that Melendez was lubricated. A representative for Ishida has spoken with the California State Athletic Commission.
“I did not grease,” Melendez told Sherdog’s Loretta Hunt. “The athletic commission was with me the whole time.”
Tuesday, August 18 3:00 am PT: ESPN Radio 1100 spoke with both Showtime VP of Sports Programming Ken Hershman and Strikeforce CEO Scott Coker recently. Naturally, the high-altitude training of Strikeforce athlete Nick Diaz was touched upon; neither man seemed delirious with joy over Diaz’ choices. (Cliff’s Notes version: according to trainer Cesar Gracie, Diaz avoided taking a urine test because he was confident he’d test positive for marijuana. The strategy bumped him from a Strikeforce welterweight title bout against Jay Hieron last Saturday.)
Clipped from Cagewriter: "You gotta be able to show up and if you can't and you're not reliable then who can count on you and where are you going to go with your career?" Hershman said. "Either you're going to do it right or not do it at all. You only get one or two shots at that and then it's done.
Tuesday, August 18 12:00 am PT: Remember, kids: it’s only cheating if you get caught. Following his win at Aug. 9’s WEC 42 event, Cole Province has tested positive for the oral steroid Methasterone, a supplement that can increase your ass-kicking ability but can also cause the unwanted side effect of liver damage. (Then again, so can a liver shot -- you pick your poison.) The Nevada Commission will reportedly give Province a chance to explain himself before handing down judgment, which could conceivably include voiding his win.
Methasterone -- otherwise known as Superdrol -- is a “legal” steroid in that it’s not a controlled substance, and anecdotal evidence points to it leaving the body within two weeks of discontinuation. Because it has some diuretic and metabolic effect, athletes typically eye it for purposes of maintaining or gaining mass while cutting weight for competition. And since it’s an over-counter product, Province may have been under the assumption that anything sold legally is legal in competition. (It’s not.)
It’s a blemish, but overall, the rate and frequency of drug test failures has decreased sharply from two years ago. (14 positives for performance-enhancers were recorded in 2007, 5 in 2008, and 4 so far this year -- thank you, CagePotato number-nerds.) Either the deterrent effect is working, or athletes are getting more clever in hiding use. Cole Province is not among the latter.
