MMARated.com: Dueling Penn & Sherk Interviews
May 19, 2008
It’s a busy morning at MMARated.com (and FOXSports.com too) because we’ve got dueling BJ Penn and Sean Sherk interviews.
Some of the highlights include:
Ariel Helwani: Penn has been very outspoken when the topic of your suspension, your appeals and steroids in MMA has come up. Basically, he’s not very happy with you right now. What do you think about all the stuff he has said leading up to the fight?
Sean Sherk: To be honest with you, I don’t even know what he’s talking about. I don’t really read up or follow any interviews online or anything, so I don’t know what kind of comments he’s made as far as him having a beef with the way I handled my situation. I didn’t take Nandrolone so I mean everything I did was pretty much all innocent. I’ve passed three lie detectors tests and then explaining all the mistakes that the California (State Athletic) Commission made in the process and the testing facility, I felt like there was plenty of evidence there to prove that I hadn’t taken anything. To be honest with you, I think BJ wants to keep bringing up that steroid stuff because maybe he feels like that’s what brings legitimacy to the belt that he’s got. I don’t think he deserves it. I think that if you want to be the champion, you’ve got to beat the champ. (That) belt was taken from me for something that I didn’t do. He wants to keep sticking the steroid stuff in my face, but for him to be talking about me like that, it’s kind of a hypocritical because I know he’s got some habits, some professional habits that professional fighters shouldn’t have. And he knows it just as well as I do, so he should maybe take a look in the mirror and think before he speaks.
AND
Ariel Helwani: I recently spoke to Sean Sherk and he’s still very adamant that everything he did was kosher. Obviously, you don’t believe him, right?
BJ Penn: Well, I asked him (on a conference call last week), ‘did you do steroids?’ He said no. I said, ‘did you do growth hormone?’ he didn’t answer. I said, ‘did you blood dope?’ He didn’t answer. Then somebody asked me, ‘so do you think he did steroids when he fought Hermes (Franca)? I said ‘well, if he didn’t do steroids then his test should come out the same way with his Nandrolone and testosterone level.’ The same thing because I’m sure he trained just as hard for this fight as he did for the Hermes fight. So, if he didn’t do anything, he should be exactly the same as last time. So, we’ll see. We know there’s more people than just him on performance enhancement drugs in the UFC. (But) you know what? It’s time to just focus on myself. A lot of smack talk has been going back and forth but come Saturday it’s all going to end the next time I get in the ring.
Pretty solid stuff from both combatants. Check out the Penn interview here and the Sherk interview here.
