Fightweets: Vitor Belfort becomes the face of The TRT Era

There were basically three stories that mattered in MMA this week: Whether Ronda Rousey vs. Cyborg Justino will ever happen; Gilbert Melendez's new deal; and the big one, the Nevada Athletic Commission banning theraputic use exemptions for testosterone replacement therapy in combat sports, followed by Vitor Belfort pulling out of his UFC 173 middleweight title shot against Chris Weidman and being replaced by Lyoto Machida.

So without further ado, onto this week's Fightweets, which is all about the Big Three and issues left in their aftermath.

TRT, Vitor, etc.

@1MeanLobo: When do you think Vitor is gonna announce an "injury" so he doesn't have to fight in Nevada?

For the record, this tweet came in, oh, about 15 seconds after the TRT ban was announced Thursday. Let's face it: By pulling out of the fight (and this comes with the qualifier that there are legitimate medical concerns about withdrawing from TRT mid-course), Belfort just sealed his legacy as the face of the TRT Era. Before this week, Belfort's fans could point around at other users and claim with some validity that Belfort was being picked on. But Belfort pulled out of his title shot (attempts at semantic posturing Friday notwithstanding) , amid rumors regarding an out-of-competition drug test (the results of which won't go public unless Belfort chooses to do so). This comes Belfort knocked people's heads off left and right on TRT, and of course, he has his 2006 steroid suspension on his record. This all has a feel similar to watching all those juiced-up baseball players in front of Congress trying to blame everyone but themselves.

@reverendruckus: Dan Henderson should send Vitor a thank you card. Hendo is just as filthy & no one talks about it.

Nope. That line of reasoning is out the window. Henderson actually went ahead and fought Rashad Evans at UFC 161 without TRT when he couldn't get an exemption. And Hendo's never been busted in a career that spans back as far as Belfort's does.

@RuckerYeah: Whoa! Nevada bans TRT. Did anyone see this coming?

It was pretty well known that the door was open to changes in the first major NAC (And it is NAC, not NSAC) meeting since Keith Kizer stepped down as executive director. But most informed speculation held that we wouldn't see any major change until after a new director came in.

Boy, was that wrong. In one fell swoop, the country's most influential athletic commission eliminated the most egregious thing wrong with the sport: That some fighters were given a green light to cheat. Think of Nevada in this case the way you normally do California. If the state of California makes a law that affects an industry, it affects the entire country, because a business can't lose a market with 35 million people, so they have to adjust their products to conform to California's regulations. Likewise, a fighter is going to have to fight in Las Vegas eventually if they're going to make it. You saw the instantaneous chain reaction, from the UFC following suit (and if nothing else, credit Dana White's consistency when he says his company follows commissions' leads), to other commissions making statements, to Belfort pulling out.