Damn, Chael. Say it ain't so.

It seems as though the "Gangster From Oregon" who claims to be "The Pound-for-Pound Best Shit-Talker" in the UFC and is the #1 contender for Anderson Silva's middleweight title has tested positive for some sort of performance-enhancing drug, according to the results of the post-fight drug screen from his August 7 fight against the champion at UFC 117.

From Sherdog:

“[Sonnen] received his notice [of the failed test] yesterday (Sept. 18),” [California State Athletic Commission Executive Officer George] Dodd told Sherdog.com shortly after the Shane Mosley-Sergio Mora boxing match ended Saturday night in Los Angeles.

In a conversation the day before, Dodd declined to comment on the situation, other than answering that all fighters from UFC 117 had passed drugs-of-abuse scans, but that the commission was still waiting on performance-enhancing drug screens from the event.

Dodd did not state which banned substance was red-flagged, but with a clean drugs-of-abuse scan it is clear the positive test was for a performance-enhancing substance. ...

Silva’s manager Ed Soares, who engaged in some heated exchanges via the media in the build up to the fight, was stunned when asked for his reaction.

“If it’s true, I feel really bad for him,” said Soares. “I know he did it to himself but it is really sad, he put on such a great performance that night. It is just a shame it will be tarnished.”

I'm in full agreement with Soares. Sonnen was very impressive at 117, giving Silva more trouble than I've ever seen anybody give him, and most likely would have won by decision had Silva's deadly elbows and prodigious ground game not kept the match from going to the cards.

And as if that weren't proof enough, the fact that Sonnen may have been on that Sammy Sosa and STILL couldn't beat Silva just goes to show had bad "The Spider" really is. That boy's a beast. (I still wanna see him fight Machida, though.)


-------

EXTRA:

- Did you know that Sonnen ran for an Oregon Senate seat (before dropping out of the race) earlier this year? I had no idea.






Supplier: Sherdog

Even in the midst of a recession, The Ultimate Fighting Championship is a cash cow.

Here's a snippet of the CNBC piece:

The privately-held UFC says its revenues for 2008 were $275 million, up 37 percent from two years earlier. And the league signed its first Fortune 500 sponsors. In 2008, Bud Light became the official beer of the brand and Harley Davidson rides the league's exploding popularity.

It says a lot about the growth of a brand that was once near extinction.

"This was something that wasn't allowed on pay-per-view, you know, a couple of years before," says UFC President Dana White. "Porn is on pay-per-view, okay? You can watch porn on pay-per-view. The UFC wasn't allowed on pay-per-view. That's how bad it was."

In 2008, pay per view events generated more than five million buys, beating the demand for boxing and wrestling.

Events typically sell out and remain a hot commodity. Seats to the marquee UFC 100, in July 2009, went in a matter of minutes and ranged from $500 to $40,000 apiece in the secondary market. Evidence to Lorenzo Fertitta that the UFC is weathering the economic downturn pretty well.

"We are up year over year in every category. Revenue, profit, pay per view, live gate, international TV sales, sponsorships, everywhere," said UFC co-owner Lorenzo Fertitta. "The question is without our recession, where would our business be?"

I can testify to how much a hot commodity UFC 100 tickets were. I wanted to go, but even seats up in the nosebleeds were going for $500 a pop. We had to settle for the closed-circuit screening right behind the venue at the Mandalay Bay Beach, and even those tickets went for a cool $50.

Like Fertitta, I, too, wonder how much UFC'd be earning if not for the recession...

Catch the whole story here.