A few quick hits on analyzing the recent events that have occurred this week in the UFC, specifically the UFC's own sanctioning of the event in London, England in which Anthony Torres tested positive for boldenone, a horse steroid. I will also discuss some of the problems regarding Hector Lombard's denial into the U.S. via a Cuban temporary visa to get into the country for his UFC 78 bout. Definitely interesting news items that will have some major effects in the UFC.

UFC's own sanctioning catches Torres

According to the article at MMAJunkie, Kevin Iole from Yahoo! Sports reported that Anthony Torres failed the post fight drug test by testing positive for an anabolic steroid called Boldenone. Stephan Bonnar tested positive for the same substance after his loss to Forrest Griffin at UFC 62. Boldenone is known for giving fighters "higher quality" muscle mass and is mostly used in bodybuilding for increasing muscle mass. The interesting part about this positive test is that the test was administered by the UFC's own Vice President of Regulatory Affairs Marc Ratner. His duties included overseeing drug testing of fighters for the event since the United Kingdom doesn't sanction mixed martial arts yet.

So what does that have to do with anything? For starters, there was no mention of any suspension given to Torres. The simple fact that it was a test done in an unsanctioned country by the UFC doesn't give them the right to suspend him from fighting in any state in the U.S. or anywhere. The UFC is not a commission. Secondly, it seems that this is the first incident of this happening at a non-sanctioned event for the UFC. What happens next? What if Torres wanted to appeal their testing, etc.? Has the UFC set up any type of guidelines or procedures for this kind of thing? We won't know because Anthony Torres had his contract cut, confirmed in the same article by Torres's agent, Ken Pavia. Torres was cut due to poor performance in the UFC, or so they say. It seems rather similar to the Sobral issue where he was cut for other reasons other than the chokeout, which I doubt.

This incident begs the question as to what would happen if an upper level fighter tested positive, say someone like Randy Couture. What if Randy Couture tested positive in an unsanctioned country? We may never know if he would have or not. The UFC's position in a non-sanctioned event is literally God. They can release information on who they want regarding testing, if they so choose to do so. That's clearly a little conspiracy theory that could happen potentially. My other concern is the fact that we haven't seen any set guidelines or procedures to start an appeal process if the fighter feels the test was incorrect. Pavia mentioned during his interview with Sherdog that Torres has stated to him that he was innocent, however the legal fees and the amount of money it would take to defend himself seems to be too much to undertake the process. Pavia stated this was all speculative however because he did not know how it would work for an unsanctioned event. He said they wouldn't pursue anything because Torres was cut anyways from his contract. Does the UFC just say a fighter tested positive and that's it? Not completely sure since his contract was cut. Once a fighter who is detrimental to the UFC's success tests positive, we may see what happens with an appeal process or we may see the UFC keep it quiet.

The UFC should hold events in sanctioned countries and states only. If the country isn't sanctioned, I'd love to see the UFC help them do so. It seems that's what they are doing in the UK and hats off to the UFC for helping them try to create a commission. To me, it seems like something they may be able to control though. Helping a country create a commission and train judges in MMA in the country may be a conflict of interest in my eyes. Having non-sanctioned events that are now sanctioned by the UFC's VP of Regulatory Affairs Marc Ratner is a good step for the UFC, but it opens up big concerns of possible corruption inside the UFC or the UFC protecting fighters they have a lot of money tied up in. This may become more of an issue as they move into Asia and Europe.

Cubans getting hosed by visas

Another story that was reported by Sherdog was the Hector Lombard fight having a huge twist in it. Apparently, Hector was denied a visa to the U.S. because he was trying to go through the visa process with a Cuban passport. Hector is a resident of Australia, but still possesses a Cuban passport that is most likely stopping him from entering the United States. Sherdog also quoted this:

The Cuban judoka, who makes his home in Australia, is facing the same visa problems that plagued Renato "Babalu" Sobral's former wrestling coach, Alejo Morales, also a Cuban national. Even though Morales established residency in Brazil, he was never able to travel to the U.S. with "Babalu."

This obviously isn't something new. Apparently, Cubans aren't allowed in the United States at all.

Why is that, you say? Most likely because Cuba is a Communist country. There are many odd discrepancies in the entire visa process regarding Cubans. Here is an instance where a reverend from Cuba was denied his visa to come speak in the U.S. because all government officials of Cuba are automatically denied access to the country. According to the article, Rev. Suarez is a elected official to the Assembly in Cuba. Ok, I understand that a Communist elected official cannot come to the U.S., but the problem is that he had already been granted access 20 other times before this try to get into the country. The article also states that there was most likely a huge shift in policy after September 11th in the immigration and visa laws, especially under the Bush Administration. It's a very interesting read as well as has some ideas as to why it's going to be tough to get Cuban fighters into the country on visas unless they are somehow defecting to the United States.

I looked into it further and found that the Chinese are also hit hard by denials of visas. I also found an intriguing blog regarding life in China and trying to get a visa. Some of the officials there actually asked what the person had for breakfast in the morning and denied the person because of their answer. That's according to this blog. If that's true, it seems like the U.S. Embassy there is making it extra difficult to get a visa into the U.S. and this has probably been the case since 9/11. Here's a great quote from the blog:

For normal people to attend meetings in U.S. is almost impossible. For the last Microsoft MVP Summit in Seattle, many MVPs in China was invited, but almost none of the more than 10 people get rejected for interview. This time, the eBay community members attending eBay Live, as far as I know, were all rejected to get a visa.

This seems rather ridiculous. The rejection rate seemed to have skyrocketed. Hopefully this won't begin to affect MMA bouts in the future as far as UFC events in the States go. It seems that any MMA fighters in Communist countries either need to get permanent residence in another country and get their passport changed immediately, or kiss getting a visa to the U.S. to fight goodbye. I will say that I understand the craziness of the U.S. government to protect secrets and not allow people close to Communist governments into the country to potential engage in terrorist activities or buy weapons or drugs. I doubt a judokan from Cuba who placed 5th in the Sydney Olympics is doing that. Give him a break.