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[BigBanda]

Source: MMA WEEKLY - Your #1 Source for Daily MMA News, Interviews, Multimedia, and More: - SHERK'S NOT GOING BACK TO CALI

Former Ultimate Fighting Championship lightweight titleholder Sean Sherk will fight anyone, anytime, and almost anywhere. But after being stripped of his belt for testing positive for the steroid Nandrolone following his title bout with Hermes Franca at UFC 73, something he vehemently denies, Sherk says he'll never fight in California again.

"There's no reason for me to ever fight in California again. The way they treated my case and the way they handled everything was so unprofessional that there's absolutely no way I'll ever fight in the state of California again, unless they get rid of the entire commission and hire a whole new commission," Sherk told MMAWeekly.

"There's so many things that they did wrong. They just messed up the entire thing and the whole time they basically told me, ‘Too bad. There's nothing you can do about it. We don't have rules, we don't have regulations, and we can do whatever we want.’ That's not a situation I'm ever going to let myself get put into again."

With his six-month suspension behind him, the 34-year-old fighter spoke candidly about his battle with the California State Athletic Commission, a battle Sherk isn't done pursuing.

"I'm done dealing with the commission itself. I still want to pursue the Nandrolone thing just because I didn't take it. They basically stripped everything from me because of that whole deal and I want to hold them accountable for that."

Not only is Sean Sherk unhappy with the CSAC's handling of his case, the No. 1 UFC lightweight contender voiced his displeasure with the laboratory that handled his samples.

“Another thing I'll never do is I'll never let my samples get tested by Quest Laboratories because they made a lot of mistakes as well. They made a lot of mistakes too, and they weren't willing to own up to the mistakes that they made. I'll never let myself get tested at Quest and I'll never fight in California."

From Sherk's perspective, not only was he stripped of his belt, the former champ missed out on sponsorship opportunities, the notoriety and exposure of being a UFC champion and suffered possibly irreparable damage to his reputation as a fighter.

"It was real frustrating to deal with that whole situation, not knowing when I was going to fight, who I was going to fight, where I was going to fight,” he commented. “Not knowing that was real frustrating. Sitting on the sidelines as long as I've been sitting on the sidelines isn't an easy thing to do, but I've been able to deal with it.

"It's hard. I've accomplished so much and I've overcome so much adversity in my career and in my life that you finally get to where you need to be and all of a sudden, bam, you're getting accused of doing something you didn't do and you've got to fight for your name, for your reputation after everything I've already been through. It's been a hard situation. It's going to take a lot of fixing. It is something that is fixable. It will take a lot of time to make it right I think."

Sherk takes on current UFC lightweight champion BJ Penn in his next fight, rumored to be the main event of the May 24 UFC pay-per-view from the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas.

[Quintessential Studmuffin]

What a baby.

Now if only UFC could find a way to exclusively run shows in Cali.....

[Clint]

I can't blame him for not wanting to return to Cali since the whole situation was handled poorly, regardless of whether or not he is innocent or guilty.

However not getting tested at Quest could be difficult since the NSAC also uses that lab and I'm pretty sure you don't get to pick your lab.

[Warchief]

I already heard that months ago, when Shrek swear to himself that he will never fight in California again.

[sandywh]

Sherk isn't the only one that won't fight in Cali anymore. There are alot of MMA fighters that are refusing to fight in California because of the commision. No matter the guilt or innocense (like Clint stated), the guys running that commision are either retarded or dirty or both and there are lots of fighters that do not want to fight there anymore.

[Warchief]

Originally Posted by osuwrestling

There must be steroids in the water out in California

Land of the Bodybuilders, what do you expect?

[peno]

"I'm going back to Cali, back to Cali, I don't think so"

Sorry, I had to do it.

[Bigshanks666]

I could really care less if I ever see Sherk fight again, let alone in Cali. The only time I've ever enjoyed watching him fight is when GSP was smashing his face.

[AJL416AZ]

well he better pull out of the fight with BJ, because 84 is going to be in Vegas.
guess who runs the tests in Vegas too? oh, Quest.

i cant believe people believe this fucking guy.

[mattyc]

Originally Posted by Clint

I can't blame him for not wanting to return to Cali since the whole situation was handled poorly, regardless of whether or not he is innocent or guilty.

However not getting tested at Quest could be difficult since the NSAC also uses that lab and I'm pretty sure you don't get to pick your lab.

I agree. From what we've been hearing about the commission, and considering that careers/money are at stake, I wouldn't want to deal with that group either (as difficult as that may be).