John Cholish is doing fighters everywhere an important public service by burning his UFC bridges and talking about UFC pay – specifically, how shitty new guys have it and how you’re lucky to break even on an entry level fight contract. He was on the Great Debate podcast earlier this week to elaborate:

“This is just gym fees, travel expenses, making sure you’re eating the right stuff, and not talking day-to-day stuff like breakfast, lunch and dinner. More like supplements, training gear, all that top to bottom. I’d say roughly between $4,000 to $6,000 a month when you look at it,” Cholish revealed.  “Again, I live in New York City so I understand costs may be a little bit higher than they are other places, but it’s expensive to train at top places and with individuals.”
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“So, for example, when I had my fight in Toronto, you have to pay for two additional flights for two coaches. You have to pay for another hotel room, which they make you get there on Monday or Tuesday. So it’s usually for four or five nights so that adds up,” Cholish explained. “I choose to take care of my coaches’ meals while they are there.  Again, I don’t think they should have to pay out of pocket to be there.  For Brazil as well there was a $500 visa fee, that was included for coaches.

“You also have to pay for your corner licensing, you have to pay for your medicals before the fight, so it might not seem like a lot but when you start adding it together.  Especially a flight to Brazil costs $1,500 or $1,600 a piece and you’re only making $8,000, it chips away pretty quickly.
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Fighting in Brazil, Cholish explains that the tax is 27 percent of the take home pay. In his case his contracted rate to fight was $8,000 (he would have won an additional $8000 with a win). Before he receives any pay from the UFC, Brazil taxes take $2,160 from his $8,000 paycheck. “Brazil takes 27 percent before you even get the money. That comes right out,” Cholish said. “Same thing as Canada, they take their money before you leave.”

On top of the taxes taken by each individual country, the fighters are still responsible for paying taxes in their home country of origin as well.

Cholish can say all this without fear of reprisal because he announced he would be retiring after his fight in Brazil, mainly over the sucker financial situation he was stuck in. Jacob Volkmann is also getting in on the Zuffa pay shit talking now that he’s in the World Series of Fighting:

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Dana White is always a pretty interesting interview, even when he’s being asked the same questions he’s been asked every single week for the past two years. Now UFC Tonight mixes things up a little and asks him a bunch of stupid questions like ‘Who cuts your hair’ and ‘What is the most embarrassing song on your iPod?’

Last week, the World Anti Drug Agency announced that they were increasing the threshold for a positive weed test from 15 ng/mL to 150 ng/mL, effectively taking care of that stupid issue where guys failed their drug test over a toke or two earlier that month. Will the Association of Boxing Commissions (the umbrella organization for all American commissions overseeing MMA) follow suit? We’ll find out soon:

The Association of Boxing Commissions will soon examine and consider the World Anti-Doping Agency’s new marijuana threshold.

The ABC’s medical committee will convene for a teleconference on May 28, during which the regulatory body will discuss, among other topics, WADA’s new stance on cannabis. According to Dr. Sherry Wulkan, the ABC’s medical chair, the committee will draft a policy statement to be presented to the ABC during the group’s annual conference this August in Texas.

“In combat sports, marijuana may be used for purposes of elevating pain threshold. There is also a concern as to whether reaction time may be altered with use,” Wulkan told Sherdog.com. “Therefore, at present, the 15ng/mL rule still applies. Whether [therapeutic use exemptions] should be granted for medicinal purposes will be one of the topics for discussion next week.”

It’s not a good sign that Wulkan brings up a questionable attribute of weed that definitely isn’t a factor at 15 ng/mL. But I have high hopes that sanity wins out on this one and the ABC goes along with WADA’s recommendations like they do with every other banned substance. If they wanna keep trying to catch fighters who are literally high while fighting, they can go nuts. They’ll probably only catch Nick Diaz from that point onwards. But this overturning of wins because of a miniscule trace of marijuana is an affront to the sport and not what drug testing should be concentrating on.

(pic via Joe Camporeale for USA Today)

Well ain’t this just romantic as shit. Justin Saikaley, a BJJ student from Canada, decided the coolest way to ask his girlfriend to marry him would be while he choked the life out of her in a triangle choke. The lack of blood to her brain obviously worked because she said yes! Possibly as heart warming as that tornado survivor finding her dog.

Okay, this is why it’s sometimes better to wait until more details come out on a story before opening your mouth and coming off like a bigger knuckle head than Bryan Caraway. My original post on MMA fighter Ibragim Todashev speculated that he was an innocent victim of aggro law enforcement that blew him away in some sort of interrogation gone horribly wrong. I’m all for a good conspiracy theory but at this point the official story ties Todashev to a triple homicide and also had him stabbing an FBI agent twice before being shot. Sure, this could still be a set up but I’d have to see more evidence pointing that way before I start entertaining that notion any more.

At this point there’s no smoking gun evidence and still a lot of serious questions regarding what exactly happened between Todashev and the law enforcement agents last night. But one thing I’m willing to admit is I jumped on a story without knowing even half the facts and in the end came off kinda tinfoil. What can I say … earlier today I speculated Josh Barnett’s return to the UFC might be a sign that Fedor is about to return. Obviously I either need to get off the crack or move to a better, more potent SuperCrack.

Matt Serra hasn’t stepped into the cage in almost three years, but that doesn’t mean he’s completely officially 100% retired. Even now after a pretty serious medical issue, he’s still being a little wishy washy over hanging up his gloves:

“It’s hard to say it,” Serra told Newsday. “It’s like you can’t say it, even though it probably is true. I would love to put closure on my career with one last fight at the Garden, but at the same time, if that doesn’t happen, I definitely consider myself done. It’s hard to say the ‘R word.’ I might never say the ‘R word.’”
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“I really think I’m walking away,” he said. “I’m going to be 39, I just had my rib taken out. I’m having my third kid. My schools are doing well. What am I doing, looking for another pay day? It’s not really for that. I mean, it doesn’t stink, but it’s not really for that. Am I still trying to hold on for the glory? Glory is a drug, dude. I’m telling you, that’s the problem. It really is. I know why guys can’t walk away. I absolutely get it.”

About that rib being taken out…

Serra couldn’t bend his arm. He couldn’t lift his hand to touch his neck. He got out of bed around 2 a.m. and drove to the emergency room at Winthrop University Hospital in Mineola. Tests revealed two blood clots in his arm and another in his lungs.

“Then I got freaked out,” Serra said. “You don’t catch that [and] after the lung, that stops your heart or your brain. Then you’re done. I’m very fortunate to, basically, be here. Sounds kind of morbid. If I didn’t catch that — I was about to go to bed. I’m like, man, something’s not feeling right.”

Serra was put on blood thinners to address the clot in his lungs. He must now inject himself in the stomach with Lovenox, an anticoagulant, every day for the next three months.

The clots in his arm created a significant health issue as well. Serra’s collarbone and first rib were compressing a blood vessel and restricting blood flow, a condition known as thoracic outlet syndrome. Serra had the first rib on his left side removed in early May, a procedure performed by Dr. George Hines, chief of vascular surgery at Winthrop. Hines estimated that Winthrop does about six of these surgeries a year.

“It’s like taking out the floor of the whole area,” Hines said. “You remove the rib and everything drops into place.”

The procedure can take up to two hours to complete, and patients typically return home the following day.

“They had to cut me open through my armpit and cut through whatever they had to cut through and get my rib out,” Serra said. “It’s definitely strange and I’m feeling it in there.”

I wonder if that will give him more flexibility in jiu jitsu. The urban legends about Marilyn Manson’s rib removal and subsequent … improved limberness certainly implies so.

(pic by Scott Peterson for MMA Weekly)