Week 2: Assignment

FridayNov 24 at 3:38am

Manage Discussion Entry

Mixed Martial Arts Light Heavyweight Champion Jonathan Dwight Jones was recently stripped from his title after failing his drug test for the second time in two years. This information which has been widely spread in sports media has mixed martial arts in the eye of the scandal. The fact that many other well-known MMA fighters such as Vitor Belfort, Diego Sanchez, Stephan Bonnar Alistair Overeem, and Ben Rothwell (these two last ones for elevated testosterone), among others have failed the drug test along the years; reflects poorly on the sports industry. This situation has fans rethinking the values of the athletes.

Reports about the drug test failure's situation tend to be generalized by reporters, and the problem is rarely analyzed any deeper. Every one of these cases has unique circumstances; however, the fact that athletes must abide by the rules of the sports make each of these personal circumstances irrelevant. It's understandable; there's no justification for the use of illegal drugs in any competition; however, the perspectives of these reports focus only on the failure of the athlete instead of betting for a more in-depth analysis like the need of muscle or resistance enhancers because of the nature of the sport.

Being that MMA is a sport in which muscle and resistance are vital, the use of anabolic steroids maybe should have a different punishment than those cases in which the use of marijuana or other drugs are found. Reports in these cases, however, are more about "clicks" to generate revenue through advertising than about trying to make sense of the problem. "But the strange thing about sports is that journalists who occasionally write on serious topics are engaging in this second kind of journalism all the time." (Chotiner, 2014). So, maybe some writers have started to pay attention to web traffic and been more commercial in general after all. In the case of Jon Jones, perhaps this second time should be treated differently than the first one in which he was suspended due to a hit-and-run, situation that for sure deserved a more severe punishment.

http://www.rollingstone.com/sports/news/ufc-jon-jones-stripped-cormier-reinstated-as-champ-after-drug-failure-w503054 (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.

http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/more-sports/jon-jones-failed-drug-test-ufc-214-stripped-title-article-1.3433896 (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.

Luis Torres

References:

Minthorn, D., Jacobsen, S., & Froke, P. (Eds.). (2015). The Associated Press stylebook and briefing on media law 2015. New York, NY: Basic Books.

Chotiner, I. (2014, June 1). There are two kinds of “sports journalism.” Only one of them is really journalism. The New Republic. Retrieved from http://www.newrepublic.com/article/117964/nba-finals-preview-greg-popovich-and-sports-journalism.