...OH, ONE MORE THING - PLEASE BOOKMARK US & VISIT DAILY!
By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief
While the MMA world awaits Nate Marquardt's revelations on what led to his removal from Sunday's UFC on Versus 4 card, one thing has been officially ruled out by the Pennsylvania State Athletic Commission.
In a report from Mike Chiappetta at MMAFighting.com, PSAC executive director Greg Sirb revealed that Marquardt had actually been licensed for the fight, and whatever medical issue he had was going to be an issue whether he gained his license to fight or not. Additionally, Sirb ruled out the theory that Marquardt had failed a drug test.
"He was licensed. He completed all his paperwork for licensing probably a week before," Sirb said. "He knew full well what the ramifications were [of failing to complete his medical issue], whether licensed or not."
"I've been here 22 years and we do not embarrass anybody. But we would have said, 'drug test' [if that was the issue]."
Marquardt took to Twitter and stated that he would be addressing all issues regarding his medicals on Tuesday, and though he didn't reveal the official outlet he would be using, MMAFighting's Ariel Helwani later revealed that Marquardt would be a guest on his "MMA Hour" program on Tuesday. So while a failed drug test has been ruled out, we all still await Marquardt's statements to make sense of his removal and subsequent firing.
Penick's Analysis: I'm not sure if that entirely rules out PEDs, as one possibility that has been floated is an issue with testosterone replacement therapy and needing to provide proper documentation that they may then not have gotten, but I don't know that I buy that either. Without hearing from Marquardt, it remains impossible to really make sense of the situation. The medical privacy laws have led to this being an exercise in theoretical speculation, and until we hear Marquardt's side of the issue we won't have the full picture. Unfortunately for Marquardt, the only thing people have really had to go on is Dana White's comments that he's "disgusted" by Marquardt's actions. The longer it takes to get his side of the story out, the more negative speculation there will be.
DON'T GO YET... WE SUGGEST THESE MMATORCH ARTICLES, TOO!
Jamie Penick, editor-in-chief
(mmatorcheditor@gmail.com)
STAFF COLUMNISTS: Shawn Ennis - Jason Amadi
Frank Hyden - Rich Hansen
Chris Park - Matt Pelkey
Interested in joining MMATorch's writing team? Send idea for a theme to your column (for Specialist section) or area of interest (i.e. TV Reporter) along with a sample of writing to mmatorch@gmail.com.