After many attempts and many subsequent reschedules, Sean Sherk’s hearing to appeal a failed drug test from his victory at UFC 73 finally ended today.
The California State Athletic Commission upheld the $2500 fine and also found Sherk guilty but reduced his sentence to 6 months with time served. This means “The Muscle Shark” will be eligible to fight in January.
Sherk is very unhappy with the commission’s ruling and has vowed to continue to try and clear his name.
To me, the only way the CSAC could possibly have ruled the way they did was that they believed the positive Sherk tested was legitimate but that he did not knowingly ingest the steroids. If this is not the CSAC’s thinking, then the decision makes absolutely no sense, because if someone is judged to have consciously taken steroids then they should receive the maximum penalty. If you reduce the sentence but still say the person consciously ingested them then how can you can possible justify the reduction? Are they saying, “Sure he was on steroids… but only a little bit.”?
The ruling also causes a massive headache for the UFC. An interim title match for the Lightweight championship between B.J. Penn and Joe Stevenson is currently set for January 19th. The reduction of Sherk’s sentence means that he is eligible for a return to competition on January 5th meaning now an Interim title seems pointless because the champion is capable of fighting at the time of the bout.
Also, UFC president Dana Whitehas also recently stated that he will honour the commissions decision and will probably strip Sherk of his title if found guilty. Now that Sherk, even though his punishment was reduced, was found guilty will Dana White strip Sherk of his title.
If he does, it will help out UFC 80 in that the Penn vs Stevenson fight would probably be for the vacant lightweight title but White would also be taking a title from his friend based on what many perceive to just be stubbornness on the CSAC’s part.
If he doesn’t he’ll have the UFC lightweight champ being inactive unnecessarily for a further 3 months or however long it takes for the winner of the UFC 80 clash to recover.
It is going to be very interesting to see what will happen when Dana White eventually sits down with Sean Sherk to discuss recent and future events. All I can say for now is,
Good Luck Sean on clearing your name.
