Oct 18, 2010 - 9:50:06 AM

By: Bjorn Hansen, MMATorch Columnist

Once again this summer, the UFC provided scintillating drama for its cult-like following, in the forms of UFC 116 and UFC 117. Both events capped off stellar nights with a distinguished and esteemed champion pulling off a resurrection-from-the-grave style rally just in time. Both Brock Lesnar and Anderson Silva have never appeared as mortal and regular as they have in their last bouts versus Shane Carwin and Chael Sonnen, respectively.

It was about time we found a pair of contenders ballsy enough to test our champions in a bona fide and memorable fashion.

Yet for Dana White’s eyes, the real excitement came after tabulating the PPV numbers. From UFC 108 until UFC 115, PPV purchases averaged roughly 544,375 pay-per-view buys per event. For UFC 116, and UFC 117, Zuffa averaged over 800,000 purchases per event. That’s an eye-popping sixty-one percent increase to the single most revenue-generating activity the company partakes in.

That’s the good news.

The bad news is that both of those two memorable championship fights - two spectacular come-from-behind finishes - are the unfortunately successful byproduct of two PED-linked fighters in Shane Carwin and Chael Sonnen.

Though there have been some unsubstantiated claims regarding Lesnar and his 'built-like-a-black-man’ musculature, it is Carwin who finds himself damagingly close to PEDs. Chael, and his previously denied and twisted account of “Lance-Armstrong-gave-himself-cancer-via-steroids-for-money,” proved he wasn’t as hard working and wholesome as he led on by virtue of his own alleged elevated testosterone level. He’s also the real life version (sans the cancer) of his perverted projection of Armstrong. Ah, life can be a real Freudian bitch sometimes.

Yes. You can go ahead and eternally etch an asterisk next to UFC 116 and UFC 117’s championship main events.

The time has long come for this question to take center stage on the public forum of the MMA blogosphere: Should Dana White do everything in his power to supplement/supplant the limited, out-dated and inadequate methodology employed by the athletic commissions with Olympic-like standards?

The mere suggestion is instantly problematic. The athletic commissions are government bodies and not departments of Zuffa. Secondly, the idea of self-policing hasn’t exactly worked well in other major leagues, namely the MLB.

Alas, it seems there is little latitude for the UFC to oversee the matters properly.

Nevertheless, remember this; the UFC isn’t averse to using a little green to grease the governmental gears, when needed.

But first, let’s delve deeper into this unnerving can of worms that is Performance Enhancing Drugs in the embryonic MMA world. We’ll do a little juxtaposing by exploring the full scope of its implications on a more established, even-keeled, sporting establishment.

Following a Lemmings Recipe

In American sports history, Allan Huber “Bud” Selig is the face of sinful omission. While Mark McGwire, Barry Bonds and Sammy Sosa were all treating the regular season like one uninterrupted homerun derby, Selig and his MLB executive cohorts were all feigning new-kid-on-the-block naïveté. Sexy statistics skyrocketed, and as a result, so did national attention. Revered we were, as we had all been duped to believe we were witnessing something much more historical and awe-inspiring than a troika of weak wills and frustratingly pathetic excuses.

Selig and his reprehensible neglect should have illustrated perfectly, for other sports commissioners to see, the perils of under-preserving the integrity of their sport. After all, integrity is the lifeblood that drives sports fans into an ecstatic frenzy during sporting events; it’s because, in their heart of hearts, they truly believe they’re witnessing someone or some team stealing the will and spirit of their respective opponent. Disturb the integrity, and you attack the very core and reason for being a sports fan in the first place. Selig's shameful inattentiveness led to congressional interrogations, contaminated historical records, and increased pressure for more players to dope up—resulting in an unsightly cold sore to the sport's face of sanctity.

A Range of Reason

Two schools of thoughts currently exist regarding what the UFC should do to counter PEDs in their sport (if anything at all is even possible).

In the red corner, you have Josh Gross, a preeminent MMA writer for the well-respected Sports Illustrated publication. Josh Gross is the embodiment of the zero-tolerance, Olympic-caliber testing stance that he believes the UFC, being the sole "major league" promotion of a fledgling sport, should embrace whole-heartedly. Gross has beenchampioning this cause since his days as editorial head honcho at Sherdog. In 2007, matters came to a head when Gross memorably chided the UFC president and his laissez faire approach to drug screening in 'An Open Letter to Dana White.’

Josh doesn’t subscribe to the UFC’s ever-so-convenient pretext of external commissions. No; not when the boss of the industry-leading MMA promotion is a self-styled control freak. No; not when the same company pumps hundreds of thousands of dollars to legislative-enacting lobbyists in Capitol Hill. Certainly, panacea overnight is impossible. But if you side with Gross, Zuffa must exhaust all of its extensive resources, both financially and politically, to ensure, that as the de facto torchbearer of the sport, it does all it can to distance itself from something as pervasively cancerous as PEDs.

Standing across, in the blue corner, is Larry Pepe (pronounced “peppy”), creator/host of ProMMA Radio. More pertinently, Larry Pepe authored the successful bodybuilding book, The Precontest Bible. Pepe is considered a guru in bodybuilding circles (he also obtained his law degree from Villanova), and has both competed and judged many events. The implied point being: banned substances and the methods used to mask their presence should be elementary stuff to Pepe.

Yet, Larry Pepe fiercely defends the status quo, and by extension Dana's modus operandi concerning testing fighters for PEDs. Pepe believes the commissions are able to weed out, accurately, the tempted ones via urine-based analysis (blood tests are required for some PEDs). If you believe Larry, you are to believe that approximately only one professional mixed martial artist, annually, listens to the impish red elf, whispering in his ear about a devilishly alluring tale, a tale that promises a quicker, easier, and more profitable and successful path. When so much is on the line for a professional fighter, it’s hard to fathom the reality reflecting such benign figures. Larry's logic seems to defy his impressively unique qualifications.

Rearing a Sport Thru Calamity

MMA is a burgeoning sport, still struggling to find its niche in this crowded sports platform. Unlike the MLB, the UFC may lack the necessary underpinnings needed to withstand a catastrophic PED controversy. To most, the rest of the media and plenty of our legislators, MMA is still very risqué.

Let's never forget, as recently as 1999, this sport was deemed unfit for our blood-thirsty eyes. The mere prospect of a bevy of steroid raging beef-heads bashing each other's brains in could potentially sound off a series of politically deadly alarms.

Divorcing principle from profitability is not a straightforward task for any sports commissioner. That much is clear. But does that have to be the case for the UFC?

The Purity Express

We live in a dirty, doped up sports world. This opens the door for the UFC to put its foot down, and offer a clean and pure sporting alternative. The missing link to mainstream glory could very well be through a purity-modeled brand differentiation strategy.

The appreciable beauty behind a sport as savage as mixed martial arts is the purity of it all. Forget about any silly steel hoops, bouncy balls, phony Astroturf, or even protective helmets. No. It's you, your fists, your preparation, and your adrenaline-fueled bravado—mano a mano. MMA is a pure sport. Purity should count for something. A chemical romance should not be welcome here.

Of course there will always be alleged false-positives, Hippocratic-breaching endocrinologists, skin-tone matching prosthetic penises, elaborate chain-of-custody arguments and many other means to masking illegal agents or avoiding prosecution for the use of them.

But that doesn’t mean an indelible line in the sand can't be publically drawn. As creative and sophisticated as masking methods are, they should be met head on, with drastic and equally elaborate counter-measures.

The UFC could attempt partnerships with outside committees such as the World Anti Doping Agency or with Anti-Doping Research (which tests for HGH), and still maintain impartiality from that process.

Dana’s Real Opus

Zuffa is still molding MMA to their liking. A strategic competitive advantage remains within grasp for the future; but only if the seeds of adamant intolerance are planted now. Congress rewards procrastination on this matter with bewildering and belittling interrogations where quick brash quips will only intensify the discomfort. Quick cash now could come with a catastrophic price later.

Since I'm ultimately merely echoing Gross' take (with a hopefully more business-reconciled perspective), I'll leave you with one of his finer points raised in his “An Open Letter to Dana White”:

"You like to recall the tale of how you came in to MMA and saved everyone. It was your money, no one else's. It was your work, no one else's. It was your guts. Your blood... I know your company propagated the message that Zuffa changed MMA by bringing in new rules that cleaned up the sport. Here's an opportunity to actually do something you can rightfully take credit for:

Dana, clean up [the UFC]."


Questions? Comments? Email me atBjorn.hansen@fiu.edu

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