Remember when a federal investigation implicated Shane Carwin as a recipient of steroid orders from Applied Pharmacy Services? It was August 14, 2010, just over a month after Carwin's second-round meltdown against Brock Lesnar at UFC 116. The news created a minor whirlwind (imagine the reaction had Carwin defeated Lesnar!) before settling down, and then all but disappearing.
Carwin's manager, Jason Genet, promised a statement about the accusations, which has, according to my memory and thorough Googling, yet to be fulfilled.
Enter this interview with MMA Fighting's Ariel Helwani:
The interview starts out jovial enough with Carwin answering questions about his weight loss and surgery on his neck and back. Then, at the 1:45 mark, Helwani asks, "After the Brock fight, there was a news story that came out, and we haven't had a chance to talk to you about it, linking you to a pharmacy that supplied steroids to athletes in Alabama. Do you have any comment on that story?"
Carwin gives an almost wry smile as he offered no comment. Helwani follows up by asking Carwin if we should expect him to comment in the future. If the initial question didn't surprise him, the followup seemed to do so, as Carwin stumbled over his words before finally stating that there was "nothing for [him] to comment on that."
Prior to UFC 118, Steve Cofield wrote a post at Yahoo!'s Cagewriter blog about the story "escaping the spotlight" just two weeks after it broke. In it, Cofield predicted:
Carwin's manager, Jason Genet, promised a statement about the accusations, which has, according to my memory and thorough Googling, yet to be fulfilled.
Enter this interview with MMA Fighting's Ariel Helwani:
The interview starts out jovial enough with Carwin answering questions about his weight loss and surgery on his neck and back. Then, at the 1:45 mark, Helwani asks, "After the Brock fight, there was a news story that came out, and we haven't had a chance to talk to you about it, linking you to a pharmacy that supplied steroids to athletes in Alabama. Do you have any comment on that story?"
Carwin gives an almost wry smile as he offered no comment. Helwani follows up by asking Carwin if we should expect him to comment in the future. If the initial question didn't surprise him, the followup seemed to do so, as Carwin stumbled over his words before finally stating that there was "nothing for [him] to comment on that."
Prior to UFC 118, Steve Cofield wrote a post at Yahoo!'s Cagewriter blog about the story "escaping the spotlight" just two weeks after it broke. In it, Cofield predicted:
We're never going to get resolution on the Carwin story. He'll come back, address it quickly and the story will get buried just like it has with James Toney, who is fighting on the card this weekend. Toney tested positive after his win over John Ruiz back in 2005 and served a 90-day suspension. Most MMA fans have no idea of Toney's history with PED's.
Here we stand, just two days out from UFC 131, and, to my knowledge, this is the first time (and, barring a member of the media getting froggy at the unstreamed press conference today, the only time) Carwin has been forced to address the issue since the story dropped. To say that Carwin has, to this point, dodged a bullet would be quite an understatement.