Painkillers and Justin Levens

Of course nothing justifies killing your wife, but Levens’ actions didn’t take place in a vacuum. I agree with Fightlinker here. Our sport comes at a cost to those who put their bodies on the line to entertain and enlighten the rest of us.

I’d have to agree also. I personally don’t see what the use is in trying to distance MMA from Levens. The way I see it, a lot of professional sports have skeletons, whether it’s juicing or pain killer addictions, homophobia, etc. It is important to discuss this sort of stuff openly in an effort to a) help bring solutions to the table, and b) de-politicize the issue. If the MMA community embraces what happened to Levens and has an open discussion, it will help us own the issue of drug addiction in MMA, thus de-politicizing it. If we run from the issue and try to sweep it under the rug, it’ll just become yet another weapon for MMA haters to use against the sport.

I don’t get why this would besmirch the sport.

It’s a terrible thing (and it has happened in my family) when this happens. Very terrible. But plenty of people who are not professional athletes do it. One incident involving an MMA fighter doesn’t make a trend or implicate the sport they were in at the time, anymore than NFL players have an unusual propensity for stabbing their ex-wives just cause OJ did it.

So how is this anyones fault but his own. We live in a country that loves to place blame on anyone but ourselves.

Very true. But, a few more mandatory tests wouldn’t really hurt too much, I think. Maybe a few psychiatric tests, to get a standpoint on how balanced the fighter is, where there mind may be after a few uppercuts to the ol’ cerebrum.

A lot of fighters go out there to fight for money, fame, respect, etc. But you have to wonder how many fighters of not just MMA, but any contact sport, go out there in the ring or the field and literally try to hit someone so hard, they are paralyzed or even killed.

Badr Hari lost his shit at K-1, and who knows what would have happened if the ref took a few more seconds to step in?

I don’t want the sport over-complicated or watered down or to take any “killer” instinct out of it, but I’m sure there are a good amount of fighters out there who are right on the edge, mental wise, who are even on legal medication.

It’s apparent that anyone who hasn’t been addicted to painkillers and those who have are going to have a bit of discord here, but I will say this… it’s nice to see fans discussing this with maturity and not making this a Deadspin.com or ESPN thread.

With that said, I tend to agree with FL’s statement above to an extent. The main problem I have with the mainstream media’s coverage is that some outlets tend to push the blame on the mentalities that these fighters must have ALREADY because they beat each other’s brains in, not because of outside factors such as painkillers due to injuries, psychological effects of living in poverty due to being injured or not making enough money fighting.

Of course, only a few outlets have made these claims in the past, but that’s where their coverage rubs me the wrong way. If they are stating that because of his fighting and everything that is part of the sport of MMA has caused him to take painkillers, which he subsequently became addicted to, I understand that point. But if an outlet is stating that Levens killed his wife because “he’s a MMA fighter, that must be his mentality”, then we have major problems.

And some major outlets have done this in the past.

Addiction to pain pills does not equal homicidal or suicidal tendencies. Period.

Painkiller is very serious and can lead to abuse of other drugs as well.

One of my good friends dropped dead at 35, largely due to steroid and painkiller abuse. He was a national level bodybuilder who was approached by the WWE about wrestling for them. They took him on a trip and a couple of the wrestlers gave him a “painkiller cocktail” and he was hooked. It got worse and worse, as he went from that to injecting intramuscular painkillers into his veins. If he couldn’t get the painkiller (nubain i think is it), he would turn to “street drugs”. All this combined took a toll on him and he was found dead, alone in his apartment.

Painkillers are kind of a nasty little secret among the sports, including wrestling. Physical and mental problems can arise and if you get the right mix, you can end up with tragedies like Levens or Benoit.

I am in NO way saying it is an excuse for what these guys did, but can definitely put someone over the edge.

Great write up.

I am sure that every fighter uses painkillers one time or another. Most are fine. Statistically, a small percentage out of a population are going to go wrong. There are “bad apples” everywhere. Trying to understand the motives of why some people go bad and others don’t is fruitless. If understanding these people can prevent future tragedies, then we would not need prisons and murders would cease to exist. Sometimes things just happen regardless of whatever safety measures we put in there. Some people are just ticking time bombs.

R.i.p. To both Levens and his wife. I pray for both families and their losses. I’ll leave the bashing of Levens up to everyone else.

but maybe they had a suicide pact. There is very little information so far, and it’s entirely possible the two of them decided to end life together.

from the OCRegister

http://sports.yahoo.com/mma/news?slug=dm-levens121908&prov=yhoo&type=lgns

There are a series of eerie similarities in what police are investigating as a murder-suicide involving former UFC and IFL fighter Justin Levens and the heavily publicized case involving pro wrestler Chris Benoit in 2007.

Autopsy results that came in on Thursday showed that Levens, 28, and his wife, Sara McLean-Levens, 25, died of gunshot wounds, which the autopsy suggests took place on or around Dec. 11.

The couple was found together in their bed in their condominium in Laguna Niguel, Calif. A gun was found next to Justin Levens, who died from a gunshot wound in the head. His wife died of a gunshot wound to the chest which went through the heart. No suicide note was found.

"If it’s a murder-suicide, he’s the shooter," said Jim Amormino, a spokesperson for the Orange County Sheriff’s Department.

The couple was scheduled to appear on Wednesday in a court case in which they faced charges of assault with a deadly weapon, in a case that allegedly involved an acquaintance of the two who owed the couple money.

According to the Orange County Register, quoting Farrah Emami of the Orange Country District Attorne’ys office, the charge came from an alleged Dec. 13, 2007 incident where the couple was accused of assault with a deadly weapon in an incident that allegedly occurred after the three were riding in McLean-Levens’ car. The complaint stated McLean-Levens asked the man for $200 that he owed her. He gave her $80. When she asked for the rest of the money, he said he didn’t have it and she pulled over the car and gave her husband a nod.

The complaint alleged that Justin Levens pulled the alleged victim, whose name was not revealed, out of the car, threw him on the ground, and punched and kicked him until his wife told him it was enough, and the couple drove off. The man was treated for cuts and bruises on his face and filed a police report.

The couple pleaded not guilty on July 27 in Orange County Superior Court on the assault with a deadly weapon charge, which was then lowered to misdemeanor aggravated assault. A pretrial hearing was scheduled for January 21.

The story quoted the couple’s attorney, Gary Pohlson, as saying Levens was not in town on that date, saying he was in Big Bear at the time training for a fight. If that story is correct, the fight must have fallen through because Levens’ last fight of his career was on Oct. 18, 2007, a first-round submission loss to Kenny Ento in Lemoore, Calif., for the Palace Fighting Championships. While he had another fight scheduled in July that ended up not taking place, he would not have been in Big Bear in December training for a July fight.

McLean-Levens’ mother found the couple dead, going to the condo after she had not heard from her daughter in several days.

Benoit suffocated his wife and son in their home near Atlanta before hanging himself on a lat pull-down machine in his home gym.

Besides ominous nicknames – Levens was known as "The Executioner," and Benoit as "The Crippler" – similarities included both men having documented domestic abuse issues. Levens plead guilty in 2003 to a misdemeanor charge in a domestic violence case in Orange County. Benoit had a restraining order from his wife in 2003. In both cases, the couples were soon back together.

Levens was said to have severe depression after the 2007 suicide of Jeremy Williams, who was both one of his best friends and his teammate on the IFL’s Southern California Condors, who also lived in Laguna Niguel. Williams died in a similar manner as Levens, from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head.

Benoit was battling depression over the deaths of three of his closest friends, all wrestlers, over the prior 20 months, Eddy Guerrero, his best friend, who died from a heart attack caused by long-term use of steroids and narcotics; Victor Mar, who died of a heart attack two months later; and Mike Durham (aka Johnny Grunge), who died of a heart attack after consuming massive amounts of muscle relaxers, a few weeks after.

Police found pain killers and antidepressants at the Levens home, but no steroids. Benoit was known to be using significant amounts of steroids, painkillers, antidepressants and anti-anxiety drugs at the time of his death.

Levens’ career as a fighter was fading, as he had lost five straight matches, three of them ending in the first round.

While Benoit’s career was not fading, close friends indicated he was under the impression it was and at 40, his career was likely in its twilight.

Benoit was believed to have suffered a number of concussions throughout his career, and had damage to the brain consistent with what would have exacerbated depression. Levens had also suffered concussions, with four knockout losses during his career.

Levens had a match scheduled with Ray Lazama on the debut show of the Affliction promotion on July 19 at the Honda Center in Anaheim. It ended up canceled due to time constraints on the long show. However, in his drug test taken before the show, he tested positive for massive amounts of the painkiller Oxymorphone. His test showed levels of 10,141 ng/mL. The cutoff for a positive result is 120 ng/mL.

He was suspended for six months after the test results came back by the California State Athletic Commission.

"The level would indicate a serious problem," said Bill Douglas, the Assistant Executive Officer of the California State Athletic Commission.

Friends within the MMA community also noted he was also undergoing financial issues.

Amormino confirmed reports that police had been called to the Levens condominium twice over the past month. He said the first time was for a drug overdose, but couldn’t confirm who had overdosed. The second time was because smoke was seen coming out of the condo, but the fire department couldn’t find a source for the smoke.

Levens, who grew up in Philadelphia, had moved to Newport Beach, Calif. to train under Marco Ruas, who later picked both Levens and Williams to fight on his Southern California Condors team for the 2007 season.

While his overall record was 9-8, Levens’ career started off strong, winning his first seven matches in 2004 and 2005 on smaller shows in California and in Tijuana, Mexico.

While he was knocked out in his first major fight, a loss to Scott Smith on Jan. 13, 2006, the fight was so exciting that it led to both Smith and Levens being signed by UFC. He debuted with the group on the April 15, 2006, pay-per-view show from Anaheim, Calif. on the first UFC event in the state of California, lost via triangle submission to the late Evan Tanner. He was cut by UFC after a second loss, via knockout, to Jorge Santiago two months later.