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Chael Sonnen goes balls out for hypogonadism defense
By Zach Arnold | December 2, 2010
I’m sure you’ve heard the news that Chael Sonnen had his suspension reduced from one year to six months today by a California State Athletic Commission appeals board. In other words, he’ll be back fighting soon enough in the UFC and a lucrative rematch with Anderson Silva is likely on tap for 2011. It’s a fight everyone wants to see.
The legal defense today by Chael Sonnen and his lawyer, Howard Jacobs, was remarkable. They claimed that Mr. Sonnen suffered from hypogonadism (lack of testosterone) and that due to the Americans with Disabilities Act that Sonnen should continue to fight. Somehow, I don’t think when the ADA legislation was passed that a UFC fighter was in the minds of the bill’s creators.
Sonnen stated that Nevada State Athletic Commission boss Keith Kizer told him that he didn’t need to disclose the fact that he’s using TRT. (Kizer denied this claim.)
- Michael David Smith: Chael Sonnen gets off easy with California commission
In the end, Sonnen proved what James Toney proved — which is that if you put up any sort of confident fight against the CSAC appeals board, you have a good chance of getting a suspension reduced.
Topics: Media, MMA, UFC, Zach Arnold | 11 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Post title of the year.
1) He can fight as early as the UFC 127, which makes this reduced suspension a complete joke.
2) Have to give him credit for trying to get of the suspension. I was as “out there” as he was for his pre-Silva fight hype. Entertaining for sure.
3) For as much grief as Keith Keizer has gotten, this would have never happened on Nevada. He would have laid the hammer down on Sonnen and not budged.
As for Josh Barnett…. Many people (myself included) are getting the sense that he doesn’t want to fight. It’s as if he just wants to keep on delaying this stuff forever. Sadly, I think CA will cave on him here. They have shown to have no backbone. But I highly doubt he will fight in CA before July 1st….
The fascinating thing, to me, is that Strikeforce has a 1/29 “big show” in San Jose that Coker was planning to build all around his top heavyweights (Fedor, Overeem, Barnett). That won’t happen now with Josh.
128 would be the earliest, actually, suspension goes until March 2. He’ll still need to re-apply, and he’s opened up the can of worms on his TRT and he’ll need to get approval for taking the testosterone going forward.
I do agree that the reduced suspension is a complete joke, though, especially with the way they arbitrarily came to the decision because they wanted to finish the meeting.
Speaking of Kizer, Sonnen stating under oath that he had this TRT conversation with Kizer – while Kizer continues to deny ever talking to Sonnen about anything at all – won’t help him when he needs to get his license in Nevada, either.
Weigh-ins should be day of fight if they are destroying themselves making weight.
Between Barnett’s steroid issues and seemingly no one wanting to fight, I don’t see how Strikeforce is going to make it out of 2011?
Babalu vs. Henderson is a crazy fight to have as a main event. If this is what they have in store for next year with no big heavyweight fights, they’re done.
Although…with Shields, Okami and Maynard getting title shots, I don’t see the UFC lighting the PPV numbers on fire either.
I don’t see Strikeforce being ‘done’ anytime soon.
As long as Showtime is interested in attracting 18-35 year old subscribers, Strikeforce will have a home there. It is dirt cheap programming that brings in a coveted demographic. Strikeforce costs only a fraction of what they spend on boxing or on first run programming like Dexter & Weeds.
Sonnen will not need to re-apply to fight at 128 as that will be in Abu Dhabi with no athletic commissions.
I don’t like the idea that one can take testosterone if they are deemed naturally insufficient. (And lets be honest here, one can certainly question whether Sonnen was naturally insufficient or unnaturally insufficient.) My muscles aren’t as big as Brock Lesnars, can I take steroids to put me at an even playing field?
If you don’t have enough testosterone to compete in a competitive and healthy manner, than you shouldn’t be competing, no different than when you are deficient in strength (Cody McKenzie being an exception of course 🙂 )
Genetics are not an even playing field. For any given attribute, some people are more gifted than others.
[…] know the names of fighters who have been discussed in the media in relation to TRT. Chael Sonnen. Nate Marquardt. Dan Henderson. And now, you can add Rampage Jackson to the list. More on this […]
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