Nevada

(The greasing heard 'round the world. Photo courtesy of NBC Sports.)

Following repeated arguments from BJ Penn that Georges St. Pierre's cornermen improperly used vaseline during their UFC 94 fight in January, the Nevada State Athletic Commission will meet today in Las Vegas at 9 a.m. PT to discuss what action, if any, should be taken against Phil Nurse and Greg Jackson.

Though Penn wants the fight to be changed to a no-contest, that scenario is unlikely; as NSAC executive director Keith Kizer explained to Sherdog, an MMA bout in Nevada can only be ruled a no-contest after the fact if scorecards were added incorrectly, if a referee or judge was paid off to influence the fight, if the referee misinterpreted a rule that effected the fight's outcome, or if there was the use of non-approved drugs or steroids. Kizer explained that the actual purpose of today's hearing was to prevent controversial greasing situations from happening in the future:

(After hours at Team Punishment.)

Bad news for mixed martial artists who've figured out that if you stop using steroids at a certain point before your fight, you'll test negative — the Nevada State Athletic Commission has announced that it will begin random steroid and drug testing for all licensed fighters as well as fighters applying for licenses. As the article explains:

Selection of licensees for testing will be made in one of three ways:
1. Fighters may be randomly chosen for testing.
2. If there is some indication that a fighter is taking a non-approved substance, they may be tested.
3. If a fighter has previously tested positive for using a non-approved substance, they may be tested.

A fighter chosen for testing will be contacted by the Commission directly and given details on the ordering of the test and the timeframe within which testing must occur...If the test is not completed within the designated timeframe or if a fighter fails the test, the Commission may refuse to license the fighter, it may not allow the fighter to compete, and/or the fighter may be subject to disciplinary action.

In other words, steroids are no longer going to be MMA's dirty little secret; if you look like you're juicing (see #2), you will be tested, and most likely busted. As it represents another step toward MMA's legitimacy in the eyes of the general public, we're all for random testing, invasive as it might be. And we hope every fighter gets this memo, or else we'll start seeing dozens of them go down in flames. However, for those who've relied on chemicals to reach their level of physicality, it may not be easy to just drop the 'roids altogether. It's like when Dateline NBC's "To Catch a Predator" series started picking up guys who'd actually seen the show — the threat of public humiliation and imprisonment wasn't enough of a deterrent for those sexual predators to change their habitual behavior.

Hmm...I'm not sure if that metaphor worked, but basically what I'm trying to say is, Bruce Buffer is a pedophile.