The World Series of Fighting 9: Carl vs. Palhares event takes place this Saturday night, but the main event is still under question.
It was just a few weeks back that former UFC ‘bad boy’ Rousimar Palhares was asked to take a random drug test for the Nevada State Athletic Commission (NSAC). “Toquinho” was forced to leave his home land of Brazil in order to take the test in the US on Monday. The results of the tests are expected to come in by the end of this week.
Palhares has had problems with drug tests in the past, failing his post fight screening following his ‘UFC on FOX 6’ bout with Hector Lombard back in 2012.
WSOF welterweight champion Steve Carl dropped by The MMA Hour earlier this week, where he said he would be disappointed if the Palhares fight fell through but that he’ll be fighting Saturday regardless:
“Yeah, somewhat, but I’m not letting it affect me. I’m going to fight on Saturday regardless, so that’s what my mind is set on.”
If the submission specialist fails the test, former Strikeforce and Bellator veteran, Tyler Stinson, will step up to the plate and challenge Carl for his world title.
The champ is cool with that, but it’s not the fight he prefers.
“I would prefer Rousimar Palhares. That’s the bigger fight, more notoriety, that’s the fight that the world’s watching; that’s the fight that everybody wants to see.”
Helwani hinted that Palhares might be entering this fight on steroids, in which Carl agreed, and just wishes his opponent passes the drug test regardless of what he could be doing on his free time.
“He’s known about this fight for a while, so I mean, there is a good possibility that he’s on something, because it’s definitely hard to take those types of steroids or supplements and stay a top-level athlete once you get yourself back off them. So, most athletes I think still take it and try to cycle off in time. I hope he was smart about it and got his levels back down. There’s a lot of guys in this sport that do illegal things, but the thing is they don’t test for it. We get tested the day of the fight, and a lot of these people are taking the TRTs, and you can cycle off of it a week before and be completely fine going into the fight. I think that’s a huge unfair advantage for guys like me who go in there all natural.”
Hopefully Palhares’ drug test comes back clean and the WSOF 9 event can go on with it’s advertised headliner, which should be a dandy. Stay tuned to BJPENN.com for further updates as they become available.