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Wheelie
11-02-2005, 12:32
www.mmaweekly.com.

Eleven Fighters Medically Suspended After UFC 51
By Ivan Trembow, MMAWeekly.com
Posted: February 10, 2005


Eighteen fighters competed at UFC 51 last Saturday night, and the Nevada State Athletic Commission for various reasons has now medically suspended eleven of those fighters. This is the second UFC event in a row in which more fighters than not were medically suspended, and many of those fighters actually won their fights. Of the four fighters who were given the longest medical suspensions of six months, three of those fighters actually won their respective fights.

-Tito Ortiz is medically suspended for six months unless a doctor clears his broken nose
-Paul Buentello is medically suspended for six months unless a doctor clears an injury to Buentello's right wrist
-Mike Kyle is medically suspended for six months unless a doctor clears injuries to Kyle's left hand and wrist
-Gideon Ray is medically suspended for six months due to an orbital bone fracture, maxillary fracture, and severe laceration
-James Irvin is medically suspended for eight weeks due to punishment taken in his TKO loss
-Vitor Belfort is medically suspended for eight weeks due to punishment taken in his decision loss
-David Terrell is medically suspended for six weeks due to punishment taken in his TKO loss
-Justin Eilers is medically suspended for six weeks due to punishment taken in his KO loss
-Phil Baroni is medically suspended for four weeks due to a right eyebrow laceration
-Chris Lytle is medically suspended for four weeks due to punishment taken in his decision loss
-Drew Fickett is medically suspended for four weeks due to punishment taken in his TKO loss

Commentary and Analysis:
- It certainly looked like Tito Ortiz suffered a broken nose during his fight with Vitor Belfort, and that was confirmed after the fight when NSAC doctors officially diagnosed Ortiz with a broken nose. Even if Ortiz is able to return to action prior to the six-month timetable put forth by the commission, there is almost zero chance that he would be ready to fight in April, assuming that he wanted to. Therefore, it is safe to say that Ortiz will not be fighting on the UFC's April 9th live special on Spike TV, or on the UFC 52 pay-per-view on April 16th, or in the first round of the Pride Grand Prix later in April. If Ortiz sticks to his demand to become the highest paid fighter in the UFC by far with $300,000 in guaranteed money for every fight, it is unlikely that he will ever fight again in the UFC. Regardless of whether or not Ortiz signs a deal with the UFC or Pride in the future, he's not going to be able to fight until his broken nose heals.

- Paul Buentello made an explosive UFC debut with his knockout of Justin Eilers at UFC 51, but now he could be out of action for six months due to what the commission doctors perceived as an injury to Buentello's right wrist. In order to suspend someone for six months, the doctors would have had to think there was a good chance that Buentello's wrist was broken or otherwise seriously injured. Ironically, Justin Eilers broke his hand in two places in his previous fight when he knocked out Mike Kyle, only to have Buentello injure his wrist when he knocked out Eilers.

- Mike Kyle is yet another fighter who was victorious at UFC 51 but is now looking at a six-month medical suspension. Kyle's injuries were classified as being just as bad or worse than Buentello's, because Kyle's injuries were to his wrist and his hand instead of just one or the other. Again, the commission doctors would not hand out such a hefty suspension if they didn't think there was a good chance that Kyle might have a broken hand, broken wrist, or both.

- Gideon Ray was probably the fighter who got the worst of it physically, as he suffered multiple severe injuries. Nasty cuts like the one on Ray's head that was created during his fight with David Loiseau are normally found above the eyebrow, but Ray had a big cut closer to the top of his head, where it's a lot harder to stitch up and a lot more likely to leave a permanent scar behind. Unfortunately for Ray, the cut was the least of his problems, as he also suffered a broken orbital bone AND a broken maxillary bone (the maxillary bone refers to the jaw bone in general, but most commonly the upper jaw). A broken jaw alone will keep one out of action for several months, and a broken orbital bone often requires surgery that keeps one out of action for 6-9 months. The orbital bone surrounds the eye socket, and recent victims of broken orbital bones have been Kazushi Sakuraba (against Mirko Cro Cop), Bob Sapp (also against Cro Cop), and Vernon White (against Chuck Liddell).

- It is becoming more and more common in the UFC for a fighter who wins by KO or TKO to be more injured than the fighter who loses by KO or TKO. Just recently, we've seen Andrei Arlovski break his hand on Cabbage's head (at least the second time Arlovski has suffered a broken hand in recent years), Justin Eilers break his hand in two places while knocking out Mike Kyle, and now Buentello and Kyle have suffered hand or wrist injuries while winning by KO or TKO.

- We're also seeing more and more fighters suspended by the athletic commission doctors for precautionary purposes after a fight in which no specific injury was sustained, but the fighter took enough punishment during the fight (or appeared to be disoriented enough after the fight) to still be medically suspended for a month or two. On this show alone, six of the eleven fighters who were medically suspended got their suspensions simply for taking a lot of punishment in their fights.

- As always, there are no hard and fast rules for suspending a fighter X amount of time after a knockout or X amount of time after a technical knockout. Vitor Belfort was medically suspended for eight weeks even though he lost a controversial split decision, while Drew Fickett was only suspended for four weeks after losing by TKO. Chris Lytle was medically suspended for four weeks after losing a unanimous decision, while Justin Eilers only got a slightly longer suspension of six weeks after being brutally knocked out.

- David Terrell appeared to be fine and not disoriented at all after his TKO loss to Evan Tanner; the fight was just stopped because Terrell was taking non-stop punishment and was no longer defending himself. Still, it was wise of the commission to give Terrell a medical suspension of six weeks due to the fact that Tanner unloaded a massive barrage of ground-and-pound offense on Terrell continuously over the course of several minutes.

Drug Testing in the UFC
Usually, only two or four fighters are drug-tested on any given UFC card, but six different fighters were drug-tested immediately after their fights at UFC 51. Those six fighters were Tito Ortiz, Vitor Belfort, Andrei Arlovski, Tim Sylvia, Evan Tanner, and David Terrell (all of whom have been drug-tested in the past other than Arlovski and Terrell). The other twelve fighters on the card were not drug-tested. If you noticed a pattern among the fighters who were drug-tested, you're not the only one, and that's precisely the problem.

The problem with the drug testing system, as it exists right now, is that going into any given event, all of the fighters know ahead of time with 99% certainty whether or not they are going to be drug-tested. All of the fighters know the policy. If you're in a title fight or a non-title main event, you are going to be drug-tested. If you're not in a title fight or a non-title main event, you are not going to be drug-tested. It's as simple as that. (The drug-testing policies are set by the athletic commissions and carried out by the athletic commissions, not by the UFC or any other specific MMA promotion.)

The only reason I say that fighters know whether they're going to be tested with 99% certainty rather than 100% certainty is because there is always the possibility that the athletic commissions could change their policies at any given time and test a fighter who is not expecting to get tested. However, that has yet to happen to my knowledge, and until it does, the other fighters have no real reason to take the drug-testing policy seriously.

The only other concern for a fighter who is taking performance-enhancing drugs and doesn't want to get caught would be the fear that if they do take something before a fight in which they're not drug-tested, traces of it could still potentially show up in their system if they are required to take a drug test the next time they fight. That is nowhere near enough of a deterrent to stop someone from taking performance-enhancing drugs if they are intent on doing so.

Make no mistake about it, the drug-testing policy for MMA is a lot better in the United States than it is in Pride, where there is no steroid testing at all, but it still leaves a lot to be desired.

bras
11-02-2005, 12:43
geen doping controles in pride?!
waarom niet? ben je meteen van sapp af... :thumbs:

Nickuraba
11-02-2005, 13:28
holy shit wat zijn er een hoop uit

The Bulldog
11-02-2005, 15:11
:twisted: hahahaha sporten is goed voor je :twisted:

Disney
11-02-2005, 15:46
Beetje krom dat de doping controles zo voorspelbaar zijn...

Waarom niet gewoon random controles, kijken wie er dan allemaal tegen de lamp lopen...

Ko Hops
12-02-2005, 00:33
vechters hebben toch goeie medische staff om hun heen om sneller te herstellen toch?

Anonymous
13-02-2005, 02:59
ze kunnen wel sneller herstellen, maar deze suspenssions zijn worden volgens mij opgelegd door de Nevada State Athletics Commision en volgens de regels van deze mag je een aantal weken niet vechten na een TKO of letstel opgelopen tijdens een gevecht.

Italian*Berlusconi*
13-02-2005, 03:01
guest = correct....
En ik denk dat mensen als Sapp nu niet meer gebruiken hoor, en dus niet veel in hun bloed hebben zitten mocht er een controle komen.