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Earlier today, the California State Athletic Commission ruled that UFC Lightweight Champion Sean ‘The Muscle Shark’ Sherk’s initial one year suspension has been reduced to a six months, effectively making Sherk available to the UFC as of  January 2008. But there’s more to this story than just the ruling.

Although UFC President Dana White has been fairly vocal in how poorly the CSAC has handled the matter, he did state the UFC would strip Sherk of the title if the suspension was upheld. Although the suspension was reduced, the decision was upheld which in laymen’s terms means that Sherk has been found guilty of using performance enhancing drugs. With that being said, will the UFC now strip Sherk for his illegal use of banned products that may (or may not) have improved his performance in the Octagon?

Whether they do or do not, the UFC has already stated that Sean Sherk will fight the winner of the ‘Lightweight Interm Championship Bout’ between BJ Penn and Joe Stevenson, which goes down at UFC 80, January 19th in Newcastle, England. I find this whole scenario a strange one, seeing as Sherk has basically been found guilty by a state regulating body yet will still be fighting for the title when he returns.

I’ve met Sean Sherk; I had the pleasure of calling one of the earlier fights in his career and I have to tell you he is a gentlemen, a stand up guy and very accommodating to all MMA fans. But I do believe Sherk should pay some sort of a penalty to the UFC, even if it means having to fight one of the other top ranked fighters in the division before he gets a shot back at the title. To reward him for doing something illegal when he was found guilty by a commission does not make much sense in my books.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, December 4th, 2007 at 9:01 pm and is filed under MMA. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.