Yoel Romero got paid and MMA Fighting lost some good folks. Let’s talk about that. Plus, one of my favorite questions I’ve ever received.

Romero’s big payday

In case you missed it, Yoel Romero won a default judgment against the company that makes the supplement he blames for his 2016 failed drug test, for $27 million dollars.

First of all, congratulations to Yoel Romero. I’m not sure if this completely exonerates him in the eyes of the public, but it certainly is a big win for him from a principles standpoint. He has always maintained his innocence and unlike some fighters who say that and then wait out their suspensions and forget about it, Yoel did what I think most fans would expect an innocent person to do, fight to clear their name. Again, I’m sure there are still going to be fans who think he uses PEDs, but I think many more have come around to believing that he was truly innocent which is what Romero said was most important to him in the first place.

And that’s a good thing because he’s never gonna see anywhere close to $27 million.

Let’s be cleat about what happened here. Romero won a default judgment. That means he filed suit, and because Gold Star Performance products never responded, he won. He didn’t go through a trial or extended litigation or anything like that. They just never responded to the suit. There are only two real reasons this would happen.

1. They are horribly mismanaged to the point that didn’t know what was going on. Good luck collecting $27 million from a company that doesn’t have a legal team.
2. They never intended to pay in the first place so they didn’t bother responding. They’ll file bankruptcy and again, good luck collecting that $27 million.

If Gold Star had any intentions of paying any sum of money, they would have at least responded to the claim and either fought the suit or negotiated a settlement. Their use contract is vague enough to at least give them some grounds to contest. At the end of the day, Yoel has a $27 mil IOU that’s really only going to be worth a fraction of that. But good for him nonetheless.

MMA Fighters as College Football teams

I’ve been sitting on this one for awhile because I love this question and wanted to actually spend some time figuring out the best comparisons. I’m not ashamed to admit I spent an aggressive amount of time figuring this one out.

Here is what I’ve determined.

• Alabama - Conor McGregor. Undoubtably one of the very best in the game but has recently had a tendency to lose on the biggest stage. Also, his own greatness is often overshadowed by his insufferable fans shouting “13 Seconds!!” (Roll Tide).
• Clemson - Daniel Cormier. One of the best in the game and genuinely likable but slightly stuck in the shadow of an all-time great.
• University of Georgia - Alexander Gustafsson. Beloved in his home country but seemingly unable to win the big one. Has come as painfully close as possible to claiming gold but instead, comes up heart-wrenchingly short leaving fans desperately holding onto the hope of “next time”.
• Nebraska - B.J. Penn. Once upon a time, Nebraska was really, really good at football, winning a pair of national championships. Then they had a little stretch where the struggled before rebounding in the 90s to go on their definitive run, winning three titles and establishing a dynasty. Now, they are terrible, struggling to keep a 500 record and painfully reminding their fans of when they used to be great.
• Notre Dame - Frankie Edgar. Won titles back in the day. Still hanging around near the top and are always “in the mix” even though they are not actually going to win again.
• Ohio State - Really, really, incredibly good. Arguably the best. But with a habit of completely shooting themselves in the foot in the dumbest ways. (Losing by 30 to Purdue/Everything Jon has done outside of the cage).
• Oklahoma - Justin Gaethje. Won a title in a previous era. Lost a bit but has rebounded to a spot where they are still really, really good but probably not going to actually win a title again. However, they are one of the most exciting teams to watch.
• Princeton - Royce Gracie. Really good at football when no one else knew what the hell football was.
• University of Southern California - T.J. Dillashaw. Both had championships stripped from them and Dillashaw has the feel of SoCal.
• Texas - Henry Cejudo. Blew up USC at the height of their powers, leading to an ignominious downfall for the CFB powerhouse. Couldn’t really replicate that going forward. (I’m presuming Marlon Moraes KOs Henry)

This is just the first iteration of this list. Obviously there are many more programs and many more fighters that fit but I didn’t want to throw out 30 teams. That would be a lot. Still, I feel that this is a pretty good start.

MMA Fighting

I’ve gotten this question a lot lately so I figure it’s time to answer it. Yes, MMA Fighting has lost a lot of good people recently and there’s a reason for that: we’re the best in the game (except, of course, Luke Thomas, the scoundrel) and people want to hire the best. I think I can speak for everyone here when I say MMA Fighting really does feel like a family and everyone here is tremendously happy for Chuck, Dave, Marc, and Shaun in their new ventures. But I can also say that none of us here are worried about what happens next. It’s fitting that this column already turned into a football piece because we are all together with a “next man up” mentality.

For the last four years, MMA Fighting has been the best source for all your MMA news and we have every intention of continuing that trend. The team we have here is still filled with impossibly talented people and we will never stop providing you the kind of coverage you expect from us here. So thank you for your continued support and your concern. We aren’t going anywhere.

Thanks for reading this week and thank you for everyone who sent in Tweets. If you have any burning questions about the latest in MMA, you can send your Hot Tweets to me, @JedKMeshew. The best ones will be featured here next week.