When he says that fighting is his only source of income, and that he needs to keep fighting to support himself and retain possession of his home, how can you not feel for him?  At the same time, the guy made a mistake, and anyone who has been following the sport in any capacity knows that the athletic commission is not going to let him off the hook simply because he needs to make some money.

In the end, it seems that a growing number of fighters are making poor decisions that are directly related to their need to make money; decisions which ultimately come back to cost them a lot more.  While it is easy to see where these guys are coming from, that doesn’t change the fact that it simply is not worth the gamble to fiddle around with the sport’s notoriously strict drug policies.

The first time that I can remember a fighter mentioning their personal finances to justify breaking the rules and failing a drug test was with Hermes Franca, who tested positive for the anabolic steroid Drostanalone when he challenged Sean Sherk for Sherk’s lightweight title at UFC 73.

Franca released a candid, heartfelt statement that really gave fans and pundits alike a look into what even a high-level fighter goes through financially.  Franca basically laid it all out there and said that he could not let an ankle injury sustained during training keep him from fighting Sherk.  He had not fought for five months at that point, and another three to six month wait (along with the loss of a title shot) was something Franca did not think he could get through financially.  Therefore, he took Drostanalone, which he hoped would speed his recovery and allow him to face Sherk as planned.

However, the decision, which Franca admitted was “short-sighted”, cost Franca a year’s worth of potential fights, along with the sponsorship money that goes with it.  Would it have been better, financially speaking, to avoid the fine, the year suspension, and miss one fight in order to not miss a year’s worth of them?  Of course.  But as Franca said, when fighters live from fight to fight and rely on fighting three to four times per year to pay their bills, it becomes hard to think about what’s best in the long-term.

Parisyan’s use of painkillers has been traced back to the lead-up to UFC 56, where “The Heat” was slated to face Matt Hughes in a welterweight title fight.  Parisyan tore his hamstring badly and was forced to pull out, but the injury has never healed correctly.  Sure enough, Parisyan was back fighting at UFC 59, less than five months after his scheduled fight against Hughes.  The muscle was never properly repaired and has given him trouble since then.  One would wonder: was it not repaired due to financial issues, such as the lengthy recovery time that may be required, which would have kept Parisyan out of the UFC even longer?

Parisyan has said in the past that he supports several members of his family, who live at home with him.  He also mentioned that he is planning on getting married this year and is worried about losing his home due to a lengthy suspension that would make him unable to fight and earn money.  Was it smart to not let the injury properly heal, though?  Look what it will cost him in the long run.  The one failed drug test already cost him $32,000 in fines, and it’s fair to say he’ll lose the opportunity to fight three times over the nine-month suspension.  He made $40,000 to show and the same amount as a win bonus in his last fight, which means that the suspension and fine is going to cost him at least $152,000, and that’s not counting any win or performance bonuses (such as fight of the night) that he would have won.  Factor in the loss of income from sponsors who want their product to be seen during fights on his shorts or a banner, and you can see that this will cost Karo a lot.

Still, it’s hard to fault him, Hermes Franca, or anyone else.  While it is undeniable that lengthy suspensions and harsh fines make it a poor decision to break the commission’s rules regarding drugs, many fighters still find themselves feeling as if they are between a rock and a hard place.  It’s easy to say that fighters should save their money or plan for unfortunate and unpredictable events such as injuries or being dropped from their contracts, but in the end, it’s always easier said than done.  It’s not the commission’s job to worry about the financial situations of fighters, and they must hand out punishment based upon the infractions, not according to how much a fighter needs their income.