Listening to Sean Sherk's post-fight interview and his comments at the press conference, it became apparent to me that we were watching a broken man. The entire appeals process broke his spirit, and he is now so desparate to be liked again and to shed the stigma of steroids that he was willing to lose a fight to do so. Will it work? I doubt it. MMA Weekly's interview with him only confirmed my thoughts:
Following the fight, many questioned Sherk's strategy to remain standing with Penn. "I wanted to show everyone that I can box,” said Sherk. "People want to see diversity in this sport. I'm not a one-dimensional fighter like people think I am, and I came here with something to prove. "I wanted to gain respect back from the fans, first of all. Secondly, I wanted to give the fans something they paid for. People paid a lot of money to come see this fight, so I wanted to hopefully re-establish myself I guess is what I'm trying to say."
In other words, he did not fight his game because he wanted to have a very exciting fight that would win fans back over to him. He thought maybe that hanging with BJ standing would gain him some respect, and that maybe, just maybe, he'd hit that lucky punch necessary to win a slugfest.
I don't think his plan worked. I think fans still see him as a cheat. UFC's fans are delusional enough to believe it is only one fighter in the organization using performance-enhancing drugs, when everyone in the industry knows that they are quite widely used. I don't think he'll ever beat this stigma now, and I suspect he'll spend the rest of his career trying to live this ordeal down.
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