drugs

(Junie Browning: Ready for the orgy.)

Anybody who watched the eighth season of The Ultimate Fighter could tell you that Junie Allen Browning is as crazy as a peach-orchard boar. But after moving to Las Vegas to train full-time, it seemed like "The Lunatic" was slowly going sane. Well, not so much. According to the Las Vegas Review Journal (via CageWriter), Browning was rushed to St. Rose Dominican Hospital on Tuesday night after taking 16 Klonopin pills in an apparent suicide attempt. It was just the beginning of Junie's troubles:

(Photo courtesy of MMAFrenzy.com.)

We previously mentioned that UFC lightweight Melvin Guillard had to pull out of his UFC 90 bout with Spencer Fisher for undisclosed reasons. Well, now those reasons are disclosed — and it ain't lookin' good. Sherdog is reporting that the Young Assassin is in custody at the Harris County jail in Houston, due to an August 13th arrest for violating probation on a 2007 drug charge. Guillard will be released to a drug treatment facility "as soon as space becomes available per the terms of his recently amended probation." And it probably won't be one of those cushy drug treatment facilities that lets patients take days off to go fight in Chicago, so there you have it.

Of course, this isn't the first time Guillard has had drug/legal trouble since his UFC career began in 2005. The New Orleans native was suspended for eight months after testing positive for cocaine following a submission loss to Joe Stevenson at UFC Fight Night 9 in April 2007. (Guillard admitted using the drug six days before the fight, thinking it would be out of his system within 72 hours.) Four months later, he was arrested for possession of a controlled substance, but got off with a fine and two years probation — which he has now violated.

If you've been keeping score, that's three strikes. Unfortunately, Guillard's not nearly valuable enough to the UFC for them to keep giving him chances; we'd expect a semi-official announcement of his dismissal sometime this week. Guillard is still an exciting-enough fighter to continue to get work in smaller shows, but we're more concerned about his health and well-being at this point. Let's hope his latest incident compels him to clean up for good...

You thought it couldn't get worse for James Irvin after his 61-second destruction at the hands of Anderson Silva at UFC Fight Night 14. You were dead wrong. Turns out Irvin's post-fight urine sample was positive for both methadone and oxymorphone. That's right, methadone, as in what they give to help recovering heroin addicts. And that's also right, oxymorphone, the semi-synthetic opiod that is 6-8 times more potent than morphine. Damn, James Irvin. Sup?

Because this is undoubtedly a rough time for "The Sandman" we'll refrain from jokes suggesting that if he was on these narcotic pain relievers before the bout with Silva, he may have to rob a pharmacy to get through his recovery afterwards. Instead we'll just say that we're very curious to hear an explanation and to see what steps the UFC and Nevada State Athletic Commission will take with something like this. Irvin has twenty days to respond and contest the results, or else it's likely to be fine and suspension time.

Both drugs are considered "banned substances", but are they performance enhancing? Will he suffer a suspension and fine similar to Nick Diaz, who the NSAC accused of being so doped up (on weed, no less) that he was virtually impervious to pain?

Guess we'll wait and see. In the meantime, let's just be glad that everyone else who was tested on the card came back clean.

Update: Justin Levens also tested positive for oxymorphone before the Affliction card that he didn't even fight on (his bout was scratched due to time issues). He's been fined $1,000 and is suspended until January 15. All without stepping into the ring.

From Sherdog — for the first time since checking into a Brazilian rehab facility last month, undefeated WEC middleweight champ Paulo Filho speaks about his condition and his delayed rematch with Chael Sonnen. Apparently, Filho was addicted to "Rupinal" (possibly referring to Rohypnol, aka "the date rape drug"), and had been suffering from depression even before his first fight in America. As far as Sonnen, "What I have to say is the lion does not deal with men." Wait a minute Paulo...are you high right now?!

(A courtroom victory would be a thousand times sweeter.)

In an e-mail exchange with MMAJunkie, Leonard Garcia claimed his innocence regarding his recent drug trafficking arrest, and implied that the charge is based only on groundless hearsay:

"I am fighting it because there is nothing but someone saying I was involved," said Garcia, who was released from jail on a reconnaissance bond and will return to court on May 5. "I hope to have a smile on my face after this is said and done, but I feel like I'm in a fight for my life...

"I'd like to tell my fans to stick with me and pray that the liar in this case tells the truth," Garcia said. "I want to get back to doing what I do best: fighting for the fans...

Your past is exactly that. My life has a bright future, and people that don't have that don't want me to have one either. May God forgive them."

On his MySpace page, Garcia adds the following:

“This is leonard, I want to ask all my fans and supporters to keep me in their prayers. Know that I can clear my name and continue to give fans the fights they deserve to watch. And know that I am innocent of a crime that I’m being accused of from 3 years ago...I will get through this mess and make everyone proud of me as I have done before."

Three years ago, eh? Too bad there's no statute of limitations on filling two dozen condoms with cocaine, inserting them into your body cavity, then taking a train from El Paso to Lubbock. We're kidding of course — we actually have no idea what Garcia used to transport the coke.