Jeremy Carper: Fight with Jamie Varner didn’t happen due to Fraudulent Blood

Ryan MacDonald (Staff Writer) | June 18, 2012 | Reply

Fight fans in the Mid-Atlantic Region are very familiar with Lightweight Jeremy Carper. They know him as a hard-working, dedicated, West Virginia fighting machine. The proficiency of Jeremy’s stand up game has garnered him the nickname “Cro-Carp”, a play off the nickname of Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovic.

Carper is coming off a recent loss at Shogun Fights, but has an upcoming fight on June 30th at Valley Fight League 38. Jeremy Carper was a guest on June 14^th episode of Pure Adrenaline Radio (part of the MMA Valor Radio Network) and while discussing his fight resume, the question arose about a fight that doesn’t appear on his record.

Jeremy Carper was scheduled for a major jump up in competition in 2011, as he was slated to fight former WEC Lightweight Champ, Jamie Varner, at Gruesome MMA 4, last June. The fight never occurred, but the reasoning had never been disclosed…..at least, not to my knowledge. When asked about the Varner fight and what happened, Carper dropped a bombshell regarding his opponent.

“Yeah man, that was a big bummer for me. Obviously, Jamie is a big name, former WEC World Champ. I went all the way down to Kentucky and you know, I was actually supposed to fight Rafaello Oliveira before that, another UFC Alum. Rafaello got the call back to the UFC, so they replaced him with Jamie, two weeks out. Jamie was a little bit bigger name and I was really excited about that fight. I went all the way down there and you know cut the weight and made the weight. It went all the way up to the day of the fight and I went to the venue and met Jamie and did my physicals and apparently Jamie’s blood work was fraudulent and the fight was off, less than an hour before show time,” answered Carper.

Ryan: Now when you say Jamie’s blood work was fraudulent, meaning it wasn’t his blood or he was trying to hide something?

“It’s still unclear. There’s still some litigation going on about that. I was there when the doctor looked at it. He looked at it and looked at Jamie and said this was fraudulent, this is unacceptable. Jamie just grabbed his bags and jetted out of the arena,” Carper explained.

gruesome mma4 194x300 Jeremy Carper: Fight with Jamie Varner didn’t happen due to Fraudulent Blood If there is still litigation pending stemming from this situation, we may not officially hear anything regarding this story for quite some time. The Kentucky Boxing and Wrestling Authority oversaw the Gruesome MMA 4 event last year and when contacted regarding Varner not fighting, Board Administrator Angela Robertson told MMA Valor that “Mr. Varner was not medically cleared to compete that night.” Robertson would further explain that unfortunately she “can’t give the reason he was not cleared.”

As Mixed Martial Arts continues to grow the sport has been dealing with more and more fighters trying to get whatever advantage they can inside the cage. What actually happened last June is still unclear but it does appear to be bigger than simply a missed opportunity for Jeremy Carper.

Either way, it’s not going to stop the proud West Virginia from getting ready for what will be his fourth fight of 2012, on June 30^th. Valley Fight League 38 will be in Martinsburg, WV and Jeremy Carper will have the opportunity to once again fight in front of his friends and family, on his turf.