Mixed Martial Arts fighter Sean Sherk was born in St. Francis and currently lives in Anoka. If you follow MMA, you also know that he won the UFC lightweight championship in 2006 and defended his title in July of 2007 — before, that is, his world turned upside-down. Sherk tested positive for steroids following the July bout and was eventually stripped of his title. He has disputed the positive test, but he is now looking more forward than backward. On Saturday, BJ Penn and Joe Stevenson will battle for the vacated lightweight title in UFC 80. The winner is expected to take on Sherk, possibly at UFC 84 in April (his suspension for the positive test was reduced from one year to six months). Sherk was nice enough to chat about the past and the future with us the other day. You might even end up calling the coming months, “The Sean Sherk Redemption.” (Coughs).

RandBall: How did you get involved in mixed martial arts?

Sean Sherk: I grew up wrestling and always had a big love for competition. I started watching MMA in 1993 and became a big fan. I started training in 1994 and had my first fight in 1998 in Mahnomen, Minn. I loved it, but I was still working full-time back then; it was not a plan of mine to become a full-time professional fighter. I was a machinist in Circle Pines. I was there for 4 years, but then I was laid off in April 2001.  … That was still before the MMA boom. It was still pretty grassroots, still up and coming. It’s been a really long road. It really started to get big maybe 3 years ago.

RB: What’s it been like to watch that rise of UFC?
SS: It’s been a long time coming. I’ve had a hard time staying busy throughout years. I’ve been in and out of the UFC.

RB: What’s the appetite for MMA in Minnesota?
SS: I think the market here is huge. I’ve fought here probably 10 times, and every time the outcome and the crowds are really good. It’s just like everywhere else … my goal is to help UFC come here sometime in the next year, hopefully.

RB: Now, I’ve read about the steroids issue, but I’d like to hear from you what, in your mind, happened.
SS: What happened is there’s a substance that’s naturally occurring called Nandrolone, and it’s in everyone’s body. What happens is the harder you train, the more Nandrolone your body produces. There’s a cutoff limit of 6 nanograms for testing. I had 12. What the [California State Athletic Commission] is trying to say is that I took steroids, which wasn’t the case. People who take that usually have 40 or 50 nanograms in their body. But I pretty much did everything I could possibly do. I took a blood test and passed it. I took several polygraphs and passed them all.

RB: I have to imagine that’s been a frustrating process. Is that a fair characterization?
SS: Yeah. Besides all that stuff, the commission has been stringing me along. They strung me along for quite a while. They had to reschedule my hearing … My feeling is that the commission knows I haven’t done anything and they were trying to make sure I couldn’t defend myself properly.

RB: What motive would they have in doing that?
SS: They’re not a mixed martial arts commission. … the commissioner himself is power-hungry. And I’m a UFC champion. What a better statement to make than to make an example of me.

RB: Aside from being stripped of your title, were there any other ramifications of the positive test?
SS: I haven’t fought since July of last year. By the time I fight next, it will have been about a year. I’ve lost sponsorships and had about $20,000 in legal fees. And I’ll have that attached to my name for the rest of my career.

RB: Eager probably isn’t even the right word, but how will it feel to get back to fighting?
SS: I think it will feel really good. I want to get this stuff behind me and get that title back. I think that will be the point where this is put to rest, and it’s left behind.

This entry was posted on Friday, January 18th, 2008 at 10:28 am and is filed under Main. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.