Sherk To Remain Champion; Penn, Stevenson To Fight For Interim Title
Sean Sherk, who is currently in the middle of a lengthy appeals process for a positive steroid test, will remain the UFC’s Lightweight Champion no matter the outcome of his November 13th appeal hearing according to a report by Yahoo! Sports. BJ Penn and Joe Stevenson will now face off in January in England at UFC 80 for the Interim Lightweight Championship. The winner of their match will then face Sherk whenever his suspension expires.
The match will headline the January 19th event and is joined on the card by a key heavyweight co-main event between Gabriel Gonzaga and Fabricio Werdum as well as The Ultimate Fighter 3 champion Kendall Grove who will face a yet-to-be-named opponent.
UFC President Dana White called the handling of the Sherk appeal by the California State Athletic Commission a “mess” and caused him to allow Sherk to remain champion.
With the main event and co-main event now confirmed by White an official announcement is likely not far off.
For more on UFC 80 check out the MMAFrenzy.com rumors section.
Tags: BJ Penn, Dana White, Joe Stevenson, Sean Sherk
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I think Dana read LR’s write up on the matter.
I agree with Dana here. The CSAC is a flippin’ joke on about 16 different levels as pointed out by the analyst. A thorough piece which shows how thorough of a mess the CSAC is. I am really glad to see Sherk is essentially being vindicated here.
I hope Dana realizes that dealing with and putting on fights in California is a joke. Both the CSAC, and the fans (I shudder to think of the morons in Sacramento at 73) cause more harm than good.
Remember how the CSAC dealt with the K-1 event?
California is a nightmare to deal with and is bad for business on a lot of levels.
UFC, please stay out of California and never go back.
I do agree with you on some points. It is a total mess. I like the idea of Stevenson and Penn fighting for an interim position the best. That is really the only fair move seeing how no one eill ever know what really happened. I still think Sherk has used steroids, but that is just my personal belief, and do believe he deserves a fair, and prompt desision on the matter. I think something should go on his record, and maybe force him to have tests in the future just to be fair to both sides in the matter though. Either way, we the fans are garenteed 2 fantastic fights.
I am all for Stevenson and Penn fighting for the Interim Lightweight Championship. Whether Sherk is guilty or not; the guy is a great fighter and the Unifcation bout between Sherk and the winner of Stevenson/Penn will be an absolute war. I hope Stevenson can pull off the upset, but is is going to be tough against Penn.
complete BS….. if you test postive there is usually a reeason for it. This is not the right message to send, Sherk should loose the belt, loose a year and work his way back up.
I agree CSAC is a complete FUBAR. People really expect more from them.
well he got luck from the CSAC being a screw up and everyone should know by now being a good ole boy in the UFC gets you preferential treatment..
why should sherk remain the champ while others were stripped of their titles. For instance, Josh Barnette,Tim Sylvia, are just to name a few and who knows what other fighters out there enhancing their performance. Was he enhanced climbing up that latter, while fighters like Bj Penn work hard all their life to make a mark in the ufc. I solute all the fighters that dont fill themselves with that junk, you are what mma is about!
Great call by UFC! Screw waiting around to find answers! We should be watching this fight in two weeks! Could’ve gone down, then we find out about Sherk at the same time. Would’ve worked out perfectly.
Taking steroids is the ultimate form of cheating in any physical sport, any fighter who does it should be severly punished, if not fired.
So what does this mean for the lightweight division? Does the winner of Penn-Stevenson not have to defend the interim title until Sherk’s suspension is over?
That will likely be the case Jacob. In all likelihood though based on Baroni’s hearing I think Sherk will probably receive a reduced suspension and that may not play any role in when the unification of the belts happens. My guess it an April or May show but we’ll see how the appeal ends up.
[...] White stated on Friday that he will not strip Sean Sherk of the Lightweight title, a move that is now being criticized [...]