Shane Carwin To Return At UFC 125: Is This a Bad Move By the UFC?

Sherdog.com writer Brian Knapp is reporting that Shane Carwin will return to the octagon at UFC 125 on New Year’s Day, about six months after being submitted by heavyweight champion Brock Lesnar.

While there is no confirmation yet, all signs point to Carwin facing off “Big Country” Roy Nelson.

The fact that Carwin has another fight lined up at this point is a little surprising, given the fact he is in the midst of a major steroid scandal. 

In August, just weeks after his title bout, Carwin was named one of 22 athletes who obtained anabolic steroids from Applied Pharmacy Services in Alabama.

Federal prosecutor Donna Dobbins was the one who identified Carwin by name.

The possibility remains open that Carwin has never used steroids since he has never failed a drug test during his five year MMA career, and instead actually sold the performance enhancing drugs.

And of course, there is also the chance that Dobbins has been misinformed.

However, anyone who has seen Carwin in recent months would be hard pressed to believe that he is as big and shredded as he is through just intense workouts and over the counter supplements alone.

Carwin’s manager, Jason Genet, and UFC President Dana White both acknowledged their awareness of the scandal, but declined to make a comment.

Genet said that Carwin would “release a statement at a later date”, but here we are three months later, with no new information to work with from “The Engineer’s” camp.

This is probably going to be viewed as a dicey move by the UFC, since Dana White has been accused of being soft on steroid use a number of times.

While it is tough to say exactly what the drug testing entails without being a fighter within the organization, it seems safe to say that the drug testing policies of the UFC closer resemble that of the WWE than those of the Olympics.

Another example could be looking at what White had to say regarding Chael Sonnen’s failed drug test for elevated testosterone levels.

He basically had nothing to say…other than that he was going to let the athletic commission deal with Sonnen’s suspension and that the UFC would not impose additional sanctions.

Not to say Sonnen should have gotten the pink slip, but White gave off a vibe like I’m not out to catch and/or reprimand fighters doing steroids.

And certainly that should not be his principle responsibility; he is a guy who has his plate full on a day to day basis.

Still, it should be one of many priorities he should have in mind.

Back to Carwin, he is innocent until proven guilty, right?  It is hard to envision a scenario where he did not do anything illegal here, but until this scandal is resolved, he deserves the benefit of the doubt.

Just like anyone else who allegedly commits a crime; just because Carwin is a professional fighter does not mean he needs to be made an example of.

With that being said, Carwin scheduling another fight in the midst of all this is going to have some backlash. 

A good number of fans are going to be annoyed, while some will probably even be disgusted and enraged.

An overreaction?  Perhaps it is.  But Dana White knows this is not the conservative approach here.

And there is no reason he cannot be conservative in a situation like this, because the UFC has dozens upon dozens of quality fighters under contract.

Furthermore, the UFC is so far ahead of competitors like Strikeforce and WEC that losing contenders like a Chael Sonnen or a Shane Carwin really would not have a sizeable negative impact on the brand. 

The Carwin situation is worse than Sonnen’s because it is quite possible he was dealing steroids.  This is why the Dana White and the UFC should get tough and not allow Carwin to compete until the scandal is resolved.

Again, Carwin could be clean as a whistle when it is all said and done.  But wait until it is all said and done in case it turns out that Carwin is not such a great guy and the UFC has a public relations nightmare on their hands.