Ken Shamrock Slapped With One-Year Suspension After Positive Steroid Test

Such is the sad life of Ken Shamrock — even when he manages to snap a five-fight losing streak by submitting a morbidly obese man with no submission defense or the ability to get to his feet after he’s fallen to the mat, he still had to cheat in order to do it. Kevin Iole passes along the bad (though fairly unsurprising) news:

The [California State Athletic] commission announced Shamrock’s suspension and $2,500 fine on Wednesday for testing positive for 19-Norandrosterone, 19- Noretiocholanolone and Stanozolol following his first-round victory over Ross Clifton.

Shamrock is slated to fight ex-World Wrestling Entertainment star Bobby Lashley in the co-main event of a March 21 MMA/boxing card in Pensacola, Fla. That fight is almost certainly now not going to happen as a result of Shamrock’s suspension. States are required to honor each other’s suspensions, which means that Florida would not allow Shamrock to fight while under suspension in Calfornia…

Shamrock’s suspension runs through Feb. 1, 2010, at which point he would be 10 days shy of his 46th birthday and would not have fought in almost a year.

Well hey, it looks like his brother Frank was right all along. But of course, nobody in this sport actually takes steroids — they simply take legal supplements that happen to secretly have steroids in them. And Ken is hoping that this dependable defense will keep him out of hot water:

Shamrock‘s manager and attorney Rod Donohoo said the fighter has adamantly denied the allegations and will appeal the suspension.

“Ken was taking legal over-the-counter products, and based upon our preliminary research, I’m investigating if those products were the result of these findings,” Donohoo told Sherdog.com on Wednesday…

“Ken is willing to submit to immediate testing in Sacramento to prove his innocence,” said Donohoo.

Right. Good luck with that. In our eyes, the real innocent victim here is Roy Jones Jr., who had a pretty damn respectable lineup of fights going for his first foray into MMA promotion. Supporting the boxing main event of Jones vs. Omar Sheika would be Shamrock vs. Lashley, Seth Petruzelli vs. Doug Marshall, and Jeff Monson vs. Roy Nelson. Now, Shamrock’s stupidity has sunk the co-main event, and Kimbo-slayer Seth Petruzelli is off the card due to an injury suffered during training. On the bright side, maybe Lashley will now get a replacement opponent who’d be able to survive past the first minute with him — and doesn’t need chemicals in order to do it.