Royce Gracie’s legacy was soiled in Los Angeles. | Photo: Dave Mandel/Sherdog.com
5. Royce Gracie (Dynamite!! USA)
K-1 Hero’s “Dynamite!! USA”
The entirety of the “Dynamite!! USA” event promoted by Fighting and Entertainment Group and EliteXC was a fiasco from start to finish. FEG had trouble obtaining a promoter’s license, while the athletic commission nixed both scheduled headliner Hong Man Choi and future Strikeforce and UFC competitor Antonio Silva. Despite those substantial screw-ups, the card still featured former professional wrestler Brock Lesnar in his MMA debut, along with a long-awaited rematch between Kazushi Sakuraba and the legendary Gracie, who had first met in an unforgettable, 90-minute battle in the epic 2000 Pride open weight grand prix.
Gracie, naturally, denied the positive test: “I have no idea what they’re talking about. Look at my first UFC: 178 [pounds]. Look at my last fight: 180. For accusing me of using drugs … I never gained a pound in my life. It’s not like I went from 178 to 200 pounds. It’s ridiculous.”
The result was especially ironic given Gracie’s outspoken views on performance-enhancing drugs. As he said of Mark Kerr, who admitted to using steroids, “Milk does a body good, but not that good.” Perhaps Gracie, too, should have stuck to the milk.
Number 4 » He tested positive for the anabolic steroid drostanalone, and, in the absence of a suitable replacement, Affliction was forced to cancel the entire event. Aside from Bellator MMA’s lone venture into the pay-per-view business, Affliction was the last organization to really attempt to break into the UFC’s market share.