Hermes Franca Arrested For DUI
Posted by Kris Karkoski on Nov 6, 2008 at 3:22 pm ET22 Comments
UFC lightweight Hermes Franca was arrested early this morning in Jupiter, Florida on charges of DUI.
Franca, who last night attended WEC 36 in Hollywood, Florida, was arrested at 2:38am on suspicion of DUI and has been released from custody. It was reportedly his first offense.
He was last in action on October 25th at UFC 90, defeating Marcus Aurelio via unanimous decision.
Tags: Hermes Franca
Awesome… Listen I don’t want to start the broken record of posts but how many times do I need to see these guys screw up their careers. I’m not trying to say MMA fighters are rich, but you don’t have enough money to call a cab? Are you kidding me? I understand mistakes but how can these guys not see how much they affect public opinion of the sport? Disgraceful…
wonder what Dana’s response will be, first steroids now a D.U.I? is Dana going to suspend him for any length of time? D.U.I’s suck and hope he gets his shhhit together, long road to clearing his license
Agree, you are in Hollywood, FL, many cabs driving around especially after an event like this. But a lot of people think I am fine to drive and do so. Question is, was he by himself? And if not, who the hell are the people he’s with that would let him drive? UFC has blown up over the past 5 years and now in the course of 4-5 months, more in the public eye for Rampage, Leben, and now Franca instead of the good fights they are putting on. It doesn’t help either to have the guys on TUF going postal off of alcohol and get to continue to strive for a 6 figure contract?? I don’t understand some of the choices fighters make and even more, how Dana slaps them on the wrist. I love Dana, but come on man, make one of these guys an example and kick their ass out. IMO
silly boy lol
Other professional athletes get DUIs and don’t necessarily lose their job. But I do think he’s on strike two after the steroids.
In the NFL, he’d be out a year. Sounds like something the UFC should look into. An official Substance abuse program. Set rules, applies to all fighters whether it’s Rampage or Kalib “Track” Starnes.
Everyone F’s up once in a while. The UFC should have no business in this situation. Let Franca get a lawyer and suffer like everyone else who has gotten a DUI. Hopefully he has a good friend and training partners to drive to all his training sessions.
I respectfully disagree, KOuch. As a resident of Cincinnati and seeing what some bad press can do to a professional sports team, the UFC needs to take a stand against people who are bringing bad press, and a DUI is certainly bad press.
Now, maybe Dana should let this particular one go, but he needs to think about a policy like the NFL’s. First offense, rehab/counseling. Second, short suspension. Third, year suspension. Fourth, gone. Applies to steroids, drugs, or DUIs.
Without that, you still have the thug reputation with most people. And most people are the ones that lobby Congress or states for regulation. If Dana wants them off his back, he needs a set-in-stone policy he can point at to say, “We have this under control on our own.”
the ufc doesnt deal out suspensions i dont think. i believe its the athletic commission that handles that. now before my next point let me say drunk driving is bad mkay very bad mkay. mma is blowin up and these athletes r now crossin into the celeb realm whether they want to or not. ive watched sports my entire life(was born the day b4 the G-MEN won the superbowl in 87) and this is how these people act. lawerance taylor smoked crack joba chamberlin just got busted for dui. my point is it comes wit the success of the athlete and of the sport. is it right? no but regardless should the ufc try to mirror the nfl? no. the athletic commissions for the most part(yes california im lookin at u) do a good job wit the drug tests. the only thing dana can do is pull an arlovski where he waits untill francas contract is almost up b4 giving him a fight
guys, if you got a dui, should you get fired(unless of course, you drive as a career)? having had one myself, i can tell you that he will be punished. he will lose his license, have mandatory counseling, pay fines and be ridiculed for years. on a first offense dana should’nt say anything publicly. he should give him a good tounge lashing… eerrr….uhhh….ummm… or maybe he should give him a stern talking to! the steroid situation however, is different. while the various athletic commissions can handle the suspensions, dana should bring those who abuse performance enhancing drugs, to task, publicly. it should never be tolerated. big ups to those who get popped and man up and say “i was wrong, i’m sorry” and thumbs down to those who deny, deny, deny. i HATE a liar…
anyway, just my opinion.
ROLL TIDE!!!
Huerta, didn’t the UFC just suspend Leben for nine months handing down their own suspention on their fighter??
I don’t know what the laws are in Florida as pertaining to dui’s, in California the laws are becoming quite strong, as of the 1st 09 a first offense with a bac over .13 you have to have a monitor hooked up to your vehicle for a min of 6 months (that u have to pay for as well as pay for the calibration for it monthly @85 dollars), along with the fines losing your lisense, paying for classes buying your SR22 getting your car out of impound, cost of a attorney, paying to do community service @12 dollars a day (17~20days usually) so I agree just yell at Hermes and handle it in house….
Also Franca’s rep said that Franca wasn’t drunk just sleepy sooo I dunno
“not drunk…just sleepy” yeah, thats what i told them too! did’nt work so well for either? lol
jager can be a very bad thing.
“the hunt master” aka jagermeister is fabulous, mix that with a few (13) newcastles and 5 or so washington apples, straight shots of bourbon and a few more jagers you too can have a bac of .29
FR702,
“.29″ speaking from experience?
fr702 he failed a drug test which is handled by the athletic commission which leads me to believe the commission suspended him not the ufc although i cant say that wit 100% certainty. ill look into it
i stand corrected it was the ufc that handed down the suspension
Well my friend ya unfortunately iam… I got it knocked down to a .21 (yippie), license suspended for a year 3 months (even before i could apply for my restricted), a year of “school” about 13,500 in fees fines yada yada….. now before anyone attacks me for being retarded (which i was) i drove like a mile if that and got pulled over no one was hurt and trust i may laugh at it and stuff but in all seriousness it wasnt funny and quite serious situation, no excuses and i owned up to what i did..
Jan 26 of 06, since then ive learned from my mistakes forsure o and the PD took my ass home cuz i was 1200 yards from my house…. Drink to remember never drink to forget..
“Since no regulatory body exists for mixed martial arts in the UK, the UFC performs its own independent testing at events held there.” so if u get caught in the uk the ufc suspends u if u get caught in the us the commission suspends u
ya Huerta i believe that if there is no sanctioning body to conduct test that the UFC will test their own fighters and hand down their own suspentions, i belive 9 months for Leben is a proper suspention
I am saddened that Hermes would take risks that could destroy his future. I’m not sure what happens to first timers in the USA but things like this add up to make a fighter undesireable. Franca is a real natural skill’s guy with a huge potential to succeed and has been exciting every time he fights, i hope this incident is not as serious as it could be.
Dana isn’t jumping to suck people off to get Hermes off like Rampage.. too bad.. I bet there was a bunch of Florida cops who wanted Dana honkin’ on their hog.
Like I said…Dana needs a set policy and the fighters need to sign on with their next contract. Doesn’t have to be a personal conduct policy like the NFL’s, but there definitely needs to be a drug/alcohol-in-the-DUI-sense policy.
The reason I suggest that is because a first offense for DUI (making this example relevant) doesn’t lead to a suspension. It leads to counseling or rehab with no UFC-given impact on career. It is only at the multiple offenses stage that the UFC steps in.
Franca, however, would have a UFC suspension for this offense because of his past transgression with steroids. By the time you rack up a steroid incident and a DUI it’s pretty clear that you have problems with managing your life. Times like that the UFC should pretend to care and have a system in place to try and help turn things around.