Here is the Wrestling Observer timeline on Overeem (same shit as I posted in the Observer thread):
December 3, 2009 at a press conference before the K-1 World Grand Prix tournament:
Remy Bonjasky: Hey Alistair, man, stop using drugs cause your getting big.”
Alistair Overeem: Hey, I’m from Holland, man, everybody in Holland uses drugs.”
They say the drug testing program in MMA is not so much a drug test, but an IQ test. But just a few months ago, Alistair Overeem either had a series of unfortunate circumstances and miscommunication, or pulled a fairly brilliant sleight of hand.
November 17, 2011: At 2 p.m., Keith Kizer, the Executive Director of the Nevada State Athletic Commission contacted the management of both Brock Lesnar and Alistair Overeem and told them they had until 5 p.m. the next day to submit a urine test for steroids and other drugs. Overeem’s manager, Collin Lam, was given a list of labs in both Las Vegas as well as Southern California, since he was training in both places. Lesnar was given a list of labs in Minnesota. At 6 p.m., Alistair Overeem was on a flight from Las Vegas to Amsterdam, Holland. Overeem said he was flying home to see his mother, since she was afraid her cancer, that she had gotten twice previously, had come back. He said he decided to continue the rest of his training camp there. Kizer has said that he believes Overeem purchased the ticket for that flight before 2 p.m. when he made the call, and while the flight out of the country sounds too coincidental, he doesn’t believe one had anything to do with the other. Overeem claimed he wanted to leave two days earlier, but consented to stay because he was scheduled to be filmed in training and to do interviews for the UFC Countdown show on the morning of 11/17.
November 21, 2011: After not hearing anything from Overeem or Lam, Kizer sent another e-mail to Lam asking why he hadn’t heard back and if Overeem had taken the test, and also e-mailed UFC saying Overeem had been asked to take a steroid test four days earlier, had been given a deadline, the deadline had passed, and he had never heard from Overeem. Lam then called Kizer and told him Overeem had flown from Las Vegas to Holland because his mother was ill. Lam said Overeem would be going to his doctor the next day to get a testing request in, and the day after, would take his test, by his personal doctor, which was not an accredited lab.
November 23, 2011: Overeem was given a blood test, not a urine test as requested. The test did not have a steroid panel, although it did test for levels of testosterone.
November 30, 2011: Kizer informed Lam and Overeem that they had taken the wrong test, and needed a urine test. Lam informed Kizer a day or two later that Overeem would be taking the test. However, he didn’t take the test until December 7, 2011, at the offices of his sometimes doctor, Dr Jan-Jan de Bruijne. Bruijne then sent the sample to a laboratory in Germany. However, no results ever came back from that sample. The sample was sent back to de Bruijne, who received it on December 12, 2011, and then disposed of it.
December 10, 2011: At the UFC show in Toronto, rumors started floating around that Overeem had an issue in Nevada and that his match with Lesnar was in jeopardy, and that Frank Mir had been contacted if needed to take his place. Dana White acted that he had never heard of any of this and said that the story wasn’t true. Later he admitted that in fact, he did know of the issue and that Mir was going to be the back-up if Overeem couldn’t fight Lesnar.
December 12, 2011: Overeem had a hearing before the Nevada State Athletic Commission. He appeared by phone from Holland. He said he flew from Las Vegas to Holland before finding out about the request for a test, and didn’t hear about a request until he arrived in Holland. Overeem said he was going to fly from Holland to England on December 14, 2011, on his own dime, miss a day of training before the biggest fight of his career, and get tested and they would rush the results to the commission. He said with that test and the test from Germany (at this point nobody knew the results of that test would never come in for some reason), they would have two tests before he even came to Las Vegas. He was also told he would be tested as soon as he arrived in Las Vegas, with the sample given a rush so results would be in before the fight. He would also be tested the night of the fight as always. The commission responded by giving him a conditional license, based on all the tests coming back clean. They also noted that after the fight, he would be given a minimum of two more unannounced drug tests over the next several months as conditions of giving him a license. Overeem noted that this should prove he was steroid free, because he was being tested more than any fighter in history.
December 30, 2011: Overeem finished Lesnar in the first round, earning himself a shot at UFC heavyweight champion Junior Dos Santos. His test in the U.K. on 12/14, and test in Nevada a week before the fight, and the night of the fight, all came out clean. The Germany test remained a mystery. The title fight was later announced for UFC 146, on 5/26 in Las Vegas.
March 27, 2012: Overeem was flown into Las Vegas for a press conference to announce UFC 146. When he got there, after the press conference, he was told that he immediately, with no warning or time to do anything, had to go to a hotel room where he was going to get the first of his unannounced tests. The commission decided that since they had everything set up to test Overeem, that all the fighters at the press conference, Dos Santos, Roy Nelson, Antonio Silva, Frank Mir and Cain Velasquez, were also to be tested immediately.
April 4, 2012: Overeem’s testosterone/epitestosterone ratio was greater than 10-1 in his test, a figure that would indicate he had been shooting testosterone, likely within a week or two at most of the test. A normal person has a 1-1 threshold. In Nevada, a 6-1 ratio is grounds for failure.
What makes this situation unique is that Overeem was only granted a conditional license, based on complying and passing all his tests. However, his conditional license expired at the end of the year. He had not yet applied for his new license. By a technicality, they would not be able to suspend him. But, based on his already having the hearing, saying he didn’t do steroids, and then testing positive, it would be impossible to believe he could get a license within a year of the test failure, and even after that date, it may be difficult.
When Overeem took the test on 4/4, just like everyone, his specimen was divided into an “A” sample and a “B” sample. Only the “A” sample has been tested. Overeem will now have the option of asking for his “B” sample to be tested. If the “B” sample comes out negative, Overeem would be free and clear regardless of the results of the “A” sample. In the history of MMA testing, at no point has a “B” sample ever given a different result than the “A” sample. Overeem may choose to make the Hail Mary play, hoping that somehow this is a first. Or he may choose to avoid further embarrassment and publicity of challenging the first result, and then having the second come back identical.
If he doesn’t challenge the test, or if he does and the second reads the same as the first, there is no way he will be facing Dos Santos for the title. At press time, UFC has not made an announcement, nor do I expect that they will until Overeem makes his decision. If he chooses to get the second sample tested, they won’t make any announcement until after the result of that test were to come in.
The most likely option would be to put either Velasquez or Mir in the title match with Dos Santos, and moving a heavyweight on the undercard up to face the one who wasn’t chosen.
“I am beyond pissed about this,” said Dana White a few hours later. “I’m so fucking mad right now I can’t even begin. The worst part is that he sat in front of us and lied to us. How fucking stupid do you have to be? Seriously, dumb. Anybody who’s using (performance enhancing drugs) right now is an absolute fucking moron. It’s beyond, what’s the word I’m looking for, it’s beyond belief. It’s beyond comprehension. You’re an absolute moron, a brain-dead absolute fucking dummy. It goes beyond a guy having any common sense whatsoever. I don’t have a plan B. It doesn’t look good, does it? It doesn’t look good.”
Mir, coming off a submission win over Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira on 12/10 in Toronto, has won three in a row, making him the most likely to be picked. However, he looked slow in his fight with Nogueira, who was taking him apart standing and had knocked him down early. But once the fight went to the ground, Mir pulled an unbelievable move and got a submission, the first time anyone had submitted Nogueira in his career. Before that Mir had beaten Nelson and Mirko Cro Cop, but both were terrible fights that he didn’t look good in.
“I would be excited if given the opportunity to compete for the UFC’s heavyweight title at UFC 146 if the reports released earlier today regarding Alistair Overeem failing his A sample drug test are true,” said Mir.
Velasquez was unbeaten and the world champion before being knocked out in 1:04 by Dos Santos. Velasquez was coming off shoulder surgery from an injury in his win over Lesnar. He also suffered a knee injury in practice before the fight that also required surgery. He fought anyway, lost, but never complained because Dos Santos had torn his MCL less than two weeks before the fight so they were essentially even, and Dos Santos also needed surgery.
Mir is the logical guy based on wins and losses, but it’s also most likely that Dos Santos will destroy Mir in the fight. Velasquez, considered by most a class or more above Mir as a fighter, would be the guy who, while still being the underdog, would appear to have a significantly better shot at winning the fight and taking the title.
As for Overeem, it becomes a tricky deal. Because he is not a licensed fighter, he can’t be suspended. The question then becomes how long, provided his “B” sample doesn’t test negative, before Overeem can fight again in UFC. I would suspect no major commission would allow him to be licensed until after April 4, 2013. The strong commissions would also likely tell him that he needs to be licensed in Nevada, the state of the infraction, before they would license him. However, as we’ve seen with Chael Sonnen and Josh Barnett in Texas, they may not require him to be licensed in Nevada first. And it’s possible they’ll let him fight before that date, although it would be a joke if they did. It’s also possible, given how everything went down, that UFC would choose not to use him anymore. If it was just one test failure, it would be one thing. But the test becomes a logical confirmation that what happened in November was not an unfortunate miscommunication and set of circumstances, and that his entire heavyweight run, if not his career, has to be called into question. The only thing that would save his job is his marketability.,
Overeem has not said anything since the result was announced.
