Josh Samman on journalistic work: 'It's become a passion of mine'

After Nick Diaz’ five-year suspension was announced by the Nevada Athletic Commission on Sep. 14, many fighters expressed their opinion on social media, but one fighter took a different approach to the situation.

UFC middleweight and writer for Bloody Elbow Josh Samman wrote a prominent article where UFC anti-doping representative Jeff Novitzky expressed his disagreement with the NAC’s suspension of Diaz.

Originally, Samman had spoken to Novitzky off the record but quickly realized that his opinion on Diaz’ suspension was news worthy, so Samman asked Novitzky if he could go on record.

"I’m trying to do my part for the things that I think are right," said Samman on Monday’s edition of The MMA Hour.

"There may be some fighters that see things or know about things and they just kind of say ‘oh, whatever’ and they keep to themselves and maybe tell their friends about it." Samman continued. "But if I have a platform to shine light on things that I think are important, compelling or people may want to know or things that could change things, like in this situation with Nick Diaz, then I’m doing a disservice to myself and the fans by holding that information to myself."

Samman has been writing for Bloody Elbow since July 2013, but has been creating fan posts as early as 2010.

"It’s become a passion of mine," said Samman. "The more reaction I get from the fans and from the readers, it encourages me to do stuff like this."

Samman is currently scheduled to fight returning UFC veteran Tamdan McCrory on Dec. 19 at UFC on Fox 17 in Orlando, Florida.

Although Samman has done articles for Bloody Elbow detailing his experience leading up to his previous fight, he may or may not do the same leading up to this fight against ‘The Barn Cat.’

"If it comes to me naturally then I’ll write about it. I don’t like to force anything. I don’t think that’s how the best work is done," explained Samman.