Dominick Cruz will miss his UFC 148 fight with Urijah Faber and could miss up to a year with a torn ACL. Dana White has announced that the UFC will create another interim title while Cruz is gone, once again wasting our time with a phantom title which in the end will render meaningless anyway.

Once I heard that Urijah Faber will fight an unnamed opponent at UFC 148 for this interim title my blood pressure started boiling. If there is one thing that is starting to become a pet peeve of mine it would be these meaningless UFC interim titles. Once again the UFC will try and pass this farce off as a real championship match when in the end, this title means as much as the fake belt that Chael Sonnen has been walking around with for the last several months. Quite frankly Sonnen’s belt may mean more!

It really came to a head for me when Carlos Condit “won” a phantom UFC interim championship at UFC 143 from Nick Diaz. Condit jumped into the fight after Georges St-Pierre suffered an injury that took him out of the fight and out of competition for up to a year. It wasn’t so bad that Condit won the fight but really set me off was when Condit announced after the fight that he would not take another fight until GSP returned, opting to sit out and wait to fight St-Pierre than defend his phony title. Wait, what?

Let me get this straight. The UFC went to the trouble of creating this interim welterweight title because Georges St-Pierre wouldn’t be able to fight until November. I would imagine the idea behind this would be to keep a championship belt active while GSP sat out for ten months. Now the UFC has a situation where the interim champion is sitting out nine months to wait and fight the real champion. So what is the freaking point of an interim champion when the interim champion is telling you not only does his title not matter, he isn’t fighting either?

Quite frankly the UFC overplayed their hand with the welterweight title and are about to do it again with the bantamweight title. By having an interim title, the UFC are going to miss out on the GSP vs. Diaz money fight. Instead of going right to Diaz, GSP now has to go to Condit since Condit is the interim champion. Could the UFC go with Diaz vs. GSP anyway? Sure they could, but it really wouldn’t make much sense in the grand scheme of things.

The UFC is about to make that same mistake again with Faber. Faber vs. Cruz is the money fight here. They have a storied rivalry which has taken center stage thanks to The Ultimate Fighter Live. By creating an interim title, the UFC now has to bank on Faber not only winning that fight, but at least one more by the time Cruz returns. Could he do it? Yes, but the odds are against it. So what happens when Cruz comes back? A year from now he’d have to fight the interim champion and depending upon where Faber is at during that time, a championship fight may not even make sense. I don’t know how you ever get back to Faber vs. Cruz if Faber is an ex-champion in the midst of a losing streak when Cruz does come back.

The irony here is that every fighter that has ever won an interim title in the UFC will tell you flat out that the title means nothing. Every one of those fighters continued to call out the champion and acknowledge that they aren’t holding the division’s legitimate title. There aren’t a whole lot of professional athletes that would have the nerve to say otherwise.

The UFC has two options here. One would be to just strip the champion of his title and make that interim title fight an actual championship fight (such was the case when BJ Penn fought Joe Stevenson when Sean Sherk tested positive for PEDs). The other of course would be to just keep the championship belt on the champion, allow him to recover, and pick things up where the UFC left off.

I am inclined to think that stripping the champion of the belt would be the best option. Is it fair? Maybe not, but if a champion isn’t active for a year those are the breaks. The champion should be given an immediate title shot upon his return. Everyone wins here as the division isn’t put on hold, the UFC can continue booking title fights, and those title fights actual mean something.

At the same time, allowing the championship to remain with the champion while he is idle isn’t a bad choice either. Would it really kill business for the UFC to leave the bantamweight title on Dominick Cruz over the next year? No, but it would make fighters in the division cautious about picking the right opponent. No contender wants to take himself out of the game by making a bad business decision. It isn’t fair to those fighters, which makes me think that just stripping the champion outright makes the most sense.

I took a look at all of the past interim UFC championship fights. There is no real good reason in my mind that the champions weren’t stripped for their titles as opposed to creating these secondary belts. It is time to end this farce and either strip the titles from the champions or give the champs time to recover and defend their belts. The only bad choice here is to continue with these phony, meaningless title fights, telling fans they are getting something they aren’t.

There is no perfect answer here. Either way you will risk your money fights but advertising a phony title is not the answer. End the interim title fights and move on!

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So it looks like that I am not the only one who thinks that Rampage Jackson never lived up to his potential in the UFC. The UFC president feels the same way and thinks that Jackson could have been a huge star if things played out differently.

If I was going to create a list of UFC stars that wasted potential Rampage Jackson would probably be up towards the top of my list. Jackson came into the UFC with a bang, a big bang when he KO’d Chuck Liddell for the UFC light heavyweight title. Unfortunately Rampage’s greatest moment wound up being his first and last after coming over to the UFC.

“I think he could have been so much better if he applied himself,” White said Tuesday. “He had all the tools. Incredible chin, knockout power in both hands, incredible charisma and personality,” said Dana White in an article that appeared on MMAFighting.com.

It is interesting because White was asked why he thinks Jackson never lived up to his potential. White cites Jackson’s hiatus to do the A-Team and his desire to be an actor. White compliments him on the part but thinks that hurt his chances of becoming a big star.

I call shenanigans!

Let’s be honest about Jackson. Jackson was a fairly one dimensional fighter in Pride. He was in his prime, young, fast, and hungry. He was a slugger and even though he had the skills to go to the ground, his best work was done on his feet. Jackson came into the UFC at a real pivotal time in MMA history. In 2007 the fight game began evolving and a whole new breed of fighter took the UFC by storm. In my opinion, Jackson was about two years too late from cleaning out the light heavyweight division in the UFC.

This all came full circle in Jackson’s UFC light heavyweight championship loss to Forrest Griffin. Griffin was never what I’d call a great fighter. However, Griffin was more well rounded Jackson. Jackson had no answer for Griffin’s repeated leg kick attack throughout their fight. Griffin exposed Jackson and in my opinion, he hasn’t been the same since.

Take a look at his career after he lost the championship to Griffin. He has gone a pathetic 4-3 since the loss. His three wins came over Wanderlei Silva, Keith Jardine (two guys that have no chins), Matt Hamill (overrated), and Lyoto Machida in a fight that I’ll never understand how Machida lost. Jackson has been absolutely dominated in his three losses to Rashad Evans, Jon Jones, and Ryan Bader. Jackson has shown nothing in about five years to justify the hype he routinely gets from the UFC and the MMA community.

I also think it is fair to point out the mental breakdowns that Jackson has had over the last few years. Jackson is not a stable man. As a matter of a fact, the UFC would have been well within their right to release him on several occasions. Some will say that Jackson just doesn’t have the mental strength to become a championship UFC fighter.

Regardless, Jackson will always be remembered to me as a guy that was a flash in the pan. He peaked in 2007 and never looked as good in the UFC as he did during his prime in Pride FC. There is only one guy that cheated Rampage Jackson out of the career that should have been and that is Rampage Jackson.

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I can’t think of a major personality in sports that lies more to his media than Dana White. The UFC president’s latest bust comes a little over a month after denying that BJ Penn vs. Gilbert Melendez was on the table. The president now admits that fight was indeed on the table.

If there is one thing that bugs me about Dana White it is his consistent lying to the MMA media. It’s not the lying that is so bad. What gets me is when he vehemently denies a report or rumor, attacks the writer for reporting it, and yet later it is revealed that the report or rumor was right. At some point the MMA media just have to ignore anything this guy says and just ignore the guy completely. However that is another rant for another day.

The latest White-ism as I will call it comes with a new revelation that a reported fight proposal which he originally denied was guess what…very real. White confirmed in a recent interview that the UFC proposed a BJ Penn vs. Gilbert Melendez Super Fight to Penn several weeks ago. Unfortunately for fight fans like me who would have loved to see the bout, Penn turned it down.

When White was asked about the fight by MMAJunkie.com he said.

“I tried to do [Melendez vs. Penn], but it was at the time when B.J. was like, ‘Yeah, I’m not fighting for a while.”

Amazing! I say amazing because Melendez’s manager Cesar Gracie casually mentioned that a fight between Penn vs. Melendez was in the mix back in March. Here is what Cesar told Tatame.com when it came to Melendez’s future fight plans.

“Melendez’s situation is complex right now. We still don’t have an opponent, date or place set. They said he could fight in San Jose but it’ll probably change. They mentioned Josh Thomson but then said it was not going to happen. It depends on the relationship between Dana White (UFC president) and Showtime (TV channel that broadcasts and managers Strikeforce). That’s the problem. I spoke to Joe Silva (UFC’s matchmaker) and he told me maybe some UFC fighters will go to Strikeforce. We would really like to see him fighting Pettis or BJ, but we are still not sure about what’s going to happen.”

Here is what Dana said when he was asked about it at the time.

“That’s not true. That’s absolutely not true. But I have been talking to B.J. Penn. I talked to B.J. Penn last week and it was the first time that B.J. and I talked since his fight. He’s just chilling right now. He wants to relax and figure out what he wants to do with his career. I’m working on Melendez. Melendez is all over my a$$.”

There are a couple of things at play here. Remember a few months back when there were several reports of Melendez close to signing with the UFC? Even Dana at the time mentioned something about Melendez moving over. I expected it to happen, it sounded like Melendez did when talking about it, yet he never made the move. My hunch is that the plan was to move Melendez over with a big fight against Penn (like Zuffa did with Overeem in matching him up with Brock). Once the Penn fight was off the table it didn’t make sense to move Melendez into a division that is already muddied when it comes to the title picture.

At the same time, the statement by Gracie would seem to indicate that Penn could have moved to Strikeforce. I don’t think that ever would have happened. I can’t imagine the UFC giving up the pay per view money made on a Penn vs. Melendez fight by having the fight take place on a Strikeforce show. Yet once again, a lot of what Gracie said at the time is now looking like the manager was being completely candid so who knows. I would say there was virtually no chance of the fight taking place in Strikeforce but who knows what kind of deal with Showtime was on the table.

It also appears that Melendez will be sticking around Strikeforce as long as there is a Showtime deal. If the UFC were going to pull Melendez over, it looks like that would have happened several weeks ago. It is a bit of a shame because I think Melendez is in his prime and would do really well in the UFC. Melendez was the first Strikeforce fighter to publicly call out the UFC fighters and yet at the end of the day, nothing came out of it.

As much as I would have loved to see Penn vs. Melendez, I don’t know if I want to see it in 2012. Give me that fight in 2010 and I would have been counting down the days until fight time. Unfortunately I think Penn is past his prime and would get taken apart by Melendez. It would have been a fantastic way to introduce Melendez to the UFC, but it really isn’t worth the sacrifice of a legend like Penn in my opinion.

The big positive here is that White and Zuffa recognize Melendez’s talents and are trying to find the best opponents for him. Unfortunately they are going to have to start looking outside of Strikeforce if they expect to find anyone that can give the Strikeforce lightweight champion a run for the money.

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UFC president Dana White is angry…or so he says. White is telling everyone and their grandmother on Twitter that he is mad at Overeem for lying to him after getting popped for a high T/E count. Yet a historical precedence shows that White’s tough words mean absolutely nothing.

We all know the story by now. Alistair Overeem tested a high T/E count last month and is now suspended for nine months. Overeem’s suspension pulled him out of the UFC 146 main-event, thus causing a nightmare of last minute planning for White and the UFC. White says he is upset, but the UFC’s history in regards to punishing fighters who fail PED tests tell a much different story.

White went off on Overeem when he was asked about the recent turn of events on the Jim Rome show. “I’m not a fan at all. You’re not going to hear me today on your radio show defending Alistar Overeem, believe me,” White expressed. “Before he went in there [with the commission], he sat down at a lunch with me and my partner, looked us in the face and said, ‘I’m the most tested athlete in all of sports. They can test me whenever they want to.’ Well, he flew in for the press conference, they tested him and now he’s on a nine-month suspension.”

“I know he lied to me. I don’t like it. You sit down and you have these guys that you do business with, ‘Say, listen. Be honest with me. What’s going on here? Let’s figure out how we can work together and how we can do business together,’ and they still sit in front of you and lie to your face. I don’t know, not the type of guys I want to do business with.”

If you didn’t know any better you are probably applauding Dana White for his tough stance against PED users, specifically Overeem. However what White tells Jim Rome and how he conducts UFC business are two completely different things. A look at White’s history of dealing with fighters who fail PED tests show a guy that has zero interest in policing MMA and 100% interest in making money.

Sean Sherk tested positive for Nandrolone (a steroid) after a successful UFC lightweight championship defense. One would assume by reading White’s statements that he would be extremely tough on a fighter who represents the UFC as a world champion and fails a PED test right? Wrong. Yes, White did strip Sherk of the title but gave him a shot at the championship in his first fight back off of suspension!

Chael Sonnen tested for elevated levels of testosterone (higher than Overeem mind you) following his UFC 117 fight with Anderson Silva. Sonnen proceeded to make a mockery of the suspension by making ridiculous statements to the press and in commission hearings. Sonnen came very close to winning the UFC middleweight championship and ending the UFC undefeated streak of Silva. Imagine the magnitude if he won the belt, ended Silva’s streak, and then it was found out he fought on high levels of testosterone? How has Chael been punished? Chael was brought back before he renewed his license and has been given high profile fights ever since. Chael is three months away from fighting Silva again in what could be the biggest fight in UFC history. Let’s not even bring up Sonnen’s part in a mortgage fraud scheme in which he plead guilty to.

Nate Marquardt was a repeat offender when it came to positive PED tests. Marquardt was fired by the UFC last summer after having high levels of testosterone according to Pennsylvania (where he was fighting). Marquardt has since been hired by Strikeforce, ironically owned by Zuffa, LLC which is also the UFC’s parent company. Marquardt is tentatively scheduled to fight for the Strikeforce welterweight championship in his first fight. Yes, another offender rewarded potentially rewarded with a title shot on his return fight.

Thiago Silva was suspended last year after it was discovered that the urine he submitted for a drug test was not “human!” Silva admitted using a synthetic urine sample to mask injections of unspecified steroids 45 and 30 days out from his previous UFC fight. Not only was Silva not cut, but he was rewarded with a main-event on a live UFC television special for his first fight off suspension.

Chris Leben is currently serving a one-year suspension for testing positive for prescription painkillers oxycodone and oxymorphone following a loss on UFC 138. Leben is a repeat offender as he tested positive for a steroid following a loss at UFC 89. As of today, Leben is gainfully employed by the UFC.

The point here is that unless you are an undercard fighter like Vinicius Quieroz the UFC has no interest in punishing fighters outside of their suspensions. Dana White can cry all day long about Overeem lying to him but so did Chael Sonnen, Chris Leben, Sean Sherk, Nate Marquardt, and Thiago Silva and none of those fighters faced any repercussions from the UFC outside of their license suspensions.

Is Dana really that upset Overeem lied to him? Maybe, but if you are expecting the UFC to make an example out of him you may as well forget it. So let’s drop the shenanigans and just announce that Overeem will fight for the championship in a main-event as soon as he is off of suspension and end the circus.

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The highly anticipated Chael Sonnen vs. Anderson Silva rematch has been moved out of Brazil. The UFC championship rematch will land on UFC 148, making UFC 148 one of the most stacked shows of all time.

The news broke early this morning although it had been brewing for about a week. Sonnen vs. Silva 2 was originally scheduled to take place in Silva’s home country of Brazil at UFC 147. Unfortunately the UFC were pressured to move the fight as it conflicted with a United Nations country. Not even the UFC could stand up and defeat the U.N.

The fight will now move to the main-event slot of UFC 148 on July 7 in Las Vegas. The fight headlines a jam-packed show that will also feature Dominick Cruz vs. Urijah Faber, Tito Ortiz vs. Forrest Griffin, Rich Franklin vs. Cung Le, and Tim Boetsch vs. Michael Bisping. I can’t recall the UFC having a show this stacked with star matchups since UFC 100 which remains the biggest drawing UFC pay per view of all-time.

The fight being moved to Vegas presents an interesting predicament for the main-event. Chael Sonnen has never gotten re-licensed from the California State Athletic Commission. The NSAC won’t let him fight without this being cleared up. I can’t imagine the CSAC not licensing Sonnen at this point but the fact remains that he doesn’t currently have that license. It should be a formality but it is still an issue until it is resolved.

Dana White mentioned today at the press conference in Brazil that the other fights on UFC 147 are still in limbo. The co-headliner features an all-Brazilian battle between Wanderlei Silva vs. Vitor Belfort. The fight concludes the first season of the Brazil version of The Ultimate Fighter which pits Belfort and Silva against each other as head coaches. The show ends in June so it is imperative that the UFC moves fast on rescheduling the fight before the buzz wears off.

Sonnen also mentioned at the press conference that the challenge he made to Silva last year is off. He originally challenged Silva to a fight where he’d retire if he lost and Silva would have to leave the division if he lost. Sonnen said that, “every deal has an expiration date” and it appears that the deal expired.

I think at the end of the day that the fight being moved out of Brazil will only enhance the high drama already surrounding this fight. Sonnen is already in full hype mode telling the media today that Silva is walking around with a fake belt. Sonnen also mocked Silva several times during the press conference today. To be clear, Silva tapped Sonnen out in the fifth round of arguably the greatest UFC fight of all time at UFC 117.

I’ll make my pick early. I think Silva destroys Sonnen in the first round at UFC 148.

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Alistair Overeem has finally broken his silence on his high TRT test. Hours before his hearing before the NSAC on April 24, Overeem has released a statement in which he admits guilt but also makes an interesting statement regarding his UFC 146 fight cancellation.

I have been an Overeem fan for years but he is really threading a fine needle with this one. Overeem tested positive for elevated levels of testosterone back in March at a surprise testing. Overeem has a hearing before the NSAC on April 24 to address this and get licensed. Overeem has remained mum until now as to what his excuse or reasoning was for the high test.

Unfortunately the UFC had enough waiting and went ahead and announced over the weekend that Overeem was being replaced by Frank Mir at UFC 146 regardless of the result of the hearing. UFC president Dana White certainly gave the impression over the weekend that it was the UFC that pulled Overeem from the fight. Overeem says different.

Here is the statement straight from the mouth of the Demolition Man himself.

“To my friends and fans,

I am deeply saddened to announce that on Friday, April 20, I respectfully withdrew from the May 26 event so that I can request a continuance until my situation with the Nevada State Athletic Commission is resolved.

I cannot express how sorry I am to the Commission, Junior Dos Santos, the fans, the owners and employees of the UFC, my friends and family and anyone else who this has affected.

I absolutely do not believe in, nor do I use performance-enhancing drugs. I am a clean fighter and I will do whatever it takes to prove this to everyone.

Prior to the UFC 146 press conference in March, I aggravated an old rib injury on my left side. My doctor prescribed, and I accepted, an anti-inflammatory medication that was mixed with testosterone. I was completely unaware that testosterone was one of the ingredients in the medication. Although I was unaware, I do realize it is my job to know what I am putting into my body.

I respect the Nevada Commissioners and Executive Director Keith Kizer and what they are doing to keep
the sport of mixed martial arts regulated and safe for athletes. I look forward to working with them in the days and weeks ahead.

Friends and fans, I ask for your patience as I work through this matter. Please support me. I promise to return to the Octagon soon.”

There are a few points that need to be made here. The first being that Overeem claims he withdrew from the fight. The UFC received a lot of negative flack for changing the fight before the hearing. If that was the case, I’d have to believe that the UFC would have immediately made the fans aware of this. I (like many) are looking forward to hear what the UFC president has to say about this one.

Two, the “I didn’t know what was in the medicine” defense has never won in an athletic commission hearing. It is the responsibility of the fighter to know everything he or she is taking and whether or not it will get them into trouble. This goes especially a fighter that is subjected to random drug tests and is a little over month away from the biggest fight of his career.

I have heard many question Overeem’s judgment to elevate his testosterone knowing that he was subject to random testing. If Overeem is telling the truth, that would explain why he so brazenly showed up in Las Vegas with elevated levels of testosterone, knowing he could and probably would be tested. I am not saying it is right, but it would explain it.

Regardless, the hearing on April 24 will dictate where Overeem goes from here. It is highly unlikely that he would walk away with anything other than a year’s suspension. However, strange things have happened and maybe he leaves with a six-month suspension. If so, that would keep Overeem idle until October. My hunch is that Overeem would fight the Dos Santos vs. Mir winner if that is the case. If the former Strikeforce champion sits a year, I think he has a long way to go before he gets back into the championship picture.

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Alistair Overeem has been knocked out…of UFC 146. UFC president Dana White made it official on Twitter and announced that Frank Mir vs. Junior Dos Santos for the UFC heavyweight championship at UFC 146.

The UFC president sent out the tweet that shook the heavyweight landscape shortly before midnight on Friday.

“Taking off to Atlanta!!!! May 26 th is now Mir vs JDS for the HW title in Las Vegas at the MGM Grand.”

Of course the announcement again goes against everything that Dana told the MMA media a week or so ago when he said that no matter what, Frank Mir vs. Cain Velasquez would remain on the card. It amazes me at times how much he has a lot of the mainstream MMA media wrapped around his finger. The guy is notorious for saying one thing and later doing the complete opposite. How anyone in the media gives anything he says credibility is beyond me.

The circumstances surrounding the sudden fight change are a little suspicious. We all know that Overeem tested positive for high levels of testosterone two weeks ago. Overeem had a hearing scheduled for April 24 to get licensed for the fight. According to many close to the situation, it was believed that Overeem would somehow beat the system and get licensed. Well the UFC took the cards out of his hands and made the former Strikeforce heavyweight champion fold.

The reaction to this on the Internet is very mixed. Some believe that giving Overeem the fight if he somehow got licensed would send a bad message to the world about the UFC’s attitude towards PEDs. Others felt that Overeem should at least be given the right to defend himself before making a decision. Needless to say, the decision to change the fight before the hearing is making waves in the MMA world.

As for the fight change, the reaction I have read has been mostly negative. A lot of fans are very upset about the change, although to be fair the UFC weren’t the ones who created the situation. Dana White had an “interesting” Twitter conversation back and forth with one fan who felt the need to tell him that he was now staying home rather than attending UFC 146.

I think the real determining factor here at the end of the day was Junior Dos Santos. Junior Dos Santos will be fighting on May 26. Up to this point, he trained for Overeem. A fight change made on or after April 24 would give the champ little time to alter his training and game planning. JDS didn’t cause the situation, so it would be unfair to punish him with the short turnaround time. While he still only has slightly over a month to prepare, at least he can continue training knowing who his opponent is on May 26 without any doubt in camp.

The fight change leaves Cain Velasquez with a new opponent. Mixed reports indicate that Velasquez will now face UFC newcomer Antonio Big Foot Silva at UFC 146. Ironically, this fight was rumored as the original comeback fight for Velasquez months ago. This is a much more intriguing fight in my opinion than Mir vs. Velasquez. I am not convinced that Big Foot is as good as the fighter that beat Fedor, but he is certainly more than capable of pulling off the upset. This also cancels the equally intriguing Silva vs. Roy Nelson fight. It should be noted that MMA reported Ariel Helwani denies that this fight has been signed. Another report indicates plans for a Velasquez vs. Fabricio Werdum fight that could possibly be moved to UFC 147.

It will be interesting to see what happens on Tuesday the 24th. As of press time, Overeem is still scheduled to appear at the hearing to get his license. If Overeem won’t be fighting in the near future, he will likely withdraw his application. Ariel Helwani summed up the situation better than anyone via tweet.

“Here’s one angle that is important to note regarding Overeem: if he is denied a license on Tuesday, that could affect his entire 2012. However, he can ask the NSAC to withdraw his license application. The NSAC can grant his request or not — it’s up to them. If they do so, he can start from square one and potentially avoid any kind of punishment or layoff, if he is guilty of what he is being accused of, when applying for a license elsewhere. That could be the reason for the timing of this change. That’s pretty much the only explanation I can think of without talking to anyone from Overeem’s camp or anyone from the UFC on the record. As of now, he’s still on Tuesday’s agenda. And speaking of Tuesday, that’s when the UFC Rio presser is supposed to happen. What an interesting day that will be (although it got a little less interesting with tonight’s announcement). ”

The new main-event certainly isn’t as sexy as the original. However, I don’t know how you could give anyone else the fight but Frank Mir. Quite frankly, Mir should have gotten the fight in the first place. Mir is in the midst of a three-fight win streak in the UFC. He has beaten three of the elite heavyweights in the division in a row. Anything else would have been unfair in my opinion.

The news comes on a strange weekend of happenings in the UFC. It is almost as if Jon Jones vs. Rashad Evans is taking a back seat to some big stories going on behind the scenes. The other big news is that the UFC will likely announce at a press conference next week that the Chael Sonnen vs. Anderson Silva fight is being moved from Brazil to Las Vegas. One hot rumor reported on Twitter by @FrontRowBrian is that Silva is refusing to fight Sonnen anywhere but Brazil and that Dana White is so furious that he is threatening to fire Silva if Anderson doesn’t take the fight.

Stay tuned…

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Alistair Overeem hasn’t been knocked out in almost five years so if you expected him to do down easy, you’re mistaken. In the face of a failed pre-fight drug test, the “Reem” will proceed with his plans to get licensed by the NSAC and fight for the UFC heavyweight title on May 26.

All indications appear to be that the former Strikeforce heavyweight champion and K1 Grand Prix winner will indeed move forward with plans to get licensed for his UFC heavyweight championship fight against Junior Dos Santos. The announcement is a bit perplexing as it comes just a couple of weeks after Overeem was popped for elevated testosterone levels.

Once the announcement was made about Overeem’s positive PED test, it was all but assumed that the UFC heavyweight championship fight between Overeem vs. Dos Santos would be scrapped. How could Overeem get a license after such a test? Apparently the Overeem camp feels that they have something up their sleeves that will indeed get their challenger a license at a time when nobody is expecting him to fight.

The mystery gets even stranger as Overeem did not request the B sample he provided along with his original tests. Overeem could have gotten the positive PED thrown out with a discrepancy in the B sample. Instead, Overeem is heading to the hearing with a different strategy in place.

Many critics questioned Overeem’s logic showing up in Las Vegas with such high levels of testosterone, knowing he could be tested. Overeem failed a test by having a greater than 10-1 testosterone to epitestosterone ratio. Nobody expected Overeem to have the guts (or stupidity) to proceed with licensing after receiving such high results.

One thing I have read several MMA writers bring up is whether the NSAC actually had the legal right to test Overeem at the UFC 146 press conference. Overeem’s license expired, which brings up the legal question as to what authority the NSAC has in enforcing the test. My hunch is that this will the argument Overeem’s team makes at the hearing.

Dana White immediately counted Overeem out and started talking about plans for a new UFC championship fight. However, White appears to have changed his tune a bit in the last few days and will wait until the hearing to decide what he wants to do. Maybe White is convinced that Overeem will get licensed?

Even if Overeem gets licensed, the stigma of being popped for such high levels won’t go away. I don’t think it will harm his career as Chael Sonnen is just months away from making more money for one fight than he probably has his entire career (a fight booked outside the U.S. coincidentally). If Overeem gets licensed, beats Dos Santos, and passes all pre fight medicals, all will likely be forgotten.

Overeem is expected to be present for the hearing on April 24. The UFC is also expected to have a backup fight ready to be announced on the 24th should Overeem not get his license.

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