MMAVu

So far, so good, for the injury-plagued UFC 98 card in Vegas next weekend. Of the four fighters randomly tested, Matt Serra, Frankie Edgar and Sean Sherk all came back clean. The NSAC was still awaiting Matt Hughes’ results at the time of posting. NSAC Executive Director Keith Kizer stated that Sherk was tested at random, and not due to his failed drug test of 2007 by the CSAC. Sherk tested positive after defeating Hermes Franca at UFC 73 and had his 12 month suspension reduced to 6 months, but the fight was thrown out and he was stripped of his 155lb title by the UFC.

Once you’re convicted of something like Sherk was, that label is very, very tough to shake. The drug testing policy appears to be a case of, “guilty until proven innocent” rather than the other way around.

Look for Sherk to do the same as his last fight against Tyson Griffin, and that is eke out a decision win. Griffin and Edgar are almost carbon copies of eachother, and I see this ending up the same way, with Sherk on top.

The UFC 79 main event that never happened is now scheduled to go down on May 23, in Las Vegas. Finally.

The UFC spent all of TUF 6 building the match up, but it never happened due to a back injury suffered by Matt Serra. George St. Pierre stepped in for Serra, defeated Hughes, then defeated Serra for the Welterweight title at UFC 83, and Serra injured his elbow during the match, scrapping all of the UFC’s plans. Hughes would go on two months later to lose to Thiago Alves and injure his knee.

This fight has lost a lot of its lustre since December 2007, but it still has a decent amount of drawing power and interest thanks to the never-ending verbal war between the two Matts. We’ll see if Hughes is able to add at least decent striking to his game, otherwise he’ll be in for a long night against the “home run” throwing Serra.