Anaheim MMA Event Cancelled after Steroids Test
Steroids in the MMA? Who could have seen that coming?
If you see this man in Anaheim this weekend, back away. Slowly.
At the top of the list of people you don’t want to run into: A leading mixed martial arts heavyweight who spent eight weeks in training in Russia, got on a plane and flew halfway around the world for a fight and a big payday, only to find out it had all been canceled.
That would be Fedor Emelianenko, and he is in Anaheim right now. Somehow a couple of free passes to Disneyland is not going to appease him.
The Russian widely considered the best heavyweight in the world was set to fight Josh Barnett at the Affliction event at the Pond. Except that Barnett was apparently hanging out with Manny Ramirez and tested positive for steroid use.
Stunning, steroids in MMA. Nobody could possibly have seen that coming.
Still, after 10 days, Affliction could not find a decent replacement for Barnett, so the event was cancelled. Emelianenko found out when he got off a plane from Russia to be in Orange County for the fight. That conversation had to go well.
This fight was expected to be the third in a three-fight conflict the Russian had with Affliction. Now you can bet that the UFC will go after him and try to get him to defect, with the promise of a massive payday if he were to take on Brock Lesnar.
The other thing the UFC can offer is stability — if they lose someone 10 days before a major pay-per-view event due to steroids or whatever, they will fill the spot and be ready to roll. Affliction said it did not have time to properly promote any new fights in that time, but the reality was the competition would have been worse and people were not going to pay for an inferior product. And that’s saying something, because all Fedor has really done for a couple years is beat up lesser opponents matched with him through lesser promoters.
If you bought a ticket for the event, you can get your money back through Ticketmaster.
And if you are in Anaheim this weekend, you may want to avoid any large, shaved-head Russians you see walking around. Chances are that guy is really pissed off.
