The Nevada Athletic Commission hearing regarding punishment for Anderson Silva and Nick Diaz for drug test failures is scheduled for 2/17, and Hector Lombard may be added to that list. While not official, it is expected the result of the 1/31 main event fight that Silva had won via unanimous decision will be ruled a no contest.
Many are skeptical, and for good reason, that a test Silva took on 1/9 would not have results back by 1/31. Both the Nevada Athletic Commission and Sports, Medicine Research & Testing Laboratory in Salt Lake City, which did four different tests on Silva’s specimen, have stated the results did not come back before the fight.
What is notable is that this past week, the word got out that Jon Fitch failed a steroid test on 12/13.
California did not get an original report of the Fitch test failure until 1/15, and then ordered another test, which didn’t come back until 2/4. California used a different lab. In the case of Fitch, unlike with Silva, the fight had already taken place so the idea they were holding back the results to protect the fight is out the window.
However, Lombard failed a test in Nevada on 1/3 and the commission already had the positive result back on 1/13. However, the test was not reported until 2/10 because Nevada didn’t release the result. Lombard had been advertised for the 4/25 show in Montreal for a fight with Rory MacDonald until 2/10, when UFC pulled the fight from the show with no explanation at first. From a local standpoint for the Montreal market, MacDonald was the
biggest star on the show, although they’ve loaded that show up with fighters from Montreal. MacDonald is no longer going to be on the show and because there is really no opponent that makes sense for him. This may be a blessing in disguise, because if Johny Hendricks doesn’t beat Matt Brown on 3/14, or gets hurt in that fight, MacDonald would be the most viable opponent for champion Robbie Lawler, who was looking to fight in May or early summer.
MacDonald vs. Lombard was replaced on the show by Demetrious Johnson vs. Kyoji Horiguchi for the flyweight title. Horiguchi fell into the spot because Ian McCall lost to an oversized, John Lineker, Lineker is being moved to bantamweight for his fourth failure to make weight. Horiguchi (15-1), is Japan’s best shot currently as holding a UFC championship.
Lombard, 37, failed for desoxymethlyltestosterone, better known as DMT or Madol, (there is a hallucinogenic drug known as DMT, this is not the same thing), a steroid used to spike food supplements as late as 2010, before the FDA banned it. Lombard failed a test he knew about ahead of time, since it was taken the day of his victory over Josh Burkman. Lombard will join Silva and Diaz as far as their cases being held on 2/17 before the Nevada Athletic Commission.
Silva had a second set of tests done on 1/19, both blood and urine, and he passed, meaning that the two steroids had cleared his system. The report on the urine test came in on 2/5. The blood test, showing no HGH, came in on 2/2, although it was not released publicly until a week later.
While anything is possible, most likely being clean ten days after the first positive test would be a result of timing his cycle of the two steroids to clear before fight time and a cessation of use at around New Year’s, give or take a day. Silva and Diaz’s test results for performance enhancing drugs taken on the night of the fight had not yet come back.
In both cases, the commissions are using this as a learning experience because you can expedite test results so they came back in less than two weeks. The point being that whether or not one chooses to believe the story on Silva, there was so much money at stake, and the commission itself is funded by a percentage of the live gate plus $50,000 from the PPV revenue, so they are hurt financially as well for a canceled show. UFC pays for the out of competition drug testing for its athletes in Nevada.
Still, the commission has said that had they had the result back before the show, the match would have been canceled. What UFC would have done in that situation is a question, as they would have had to offer refunds of the live gate. Had they gone on with the show, because the show didn’t have a strong marquee undercard (really, the second strongest fight to the public was the Sara McMann vs. Miesha Tate fight that wasn’t even on the PPV), a lot of refunds could have meant an empty building. There were likely thousands of Brazilians who had flown in for the show. What they would have done for the PPV is another question.
The key point is if what is being said is accurate, this has been a learning experience and they can’t play the we didn’t get the results back in time card again for any test more than two weeks or so before the show itself.
Silva has maintained his innocence, saying that he doesn’t understand how he tested positive.
His manager, Ed Soares, released a statement from Silva, saying, “I’ve been competing in this sport for a very long time. This is my 19th fight in the UFC. I have been thoroughly tested many times and have never had a positive drug test. I have not taken any performance enhancing drugs. My stance on drugs is, and will always be, the same. I’m an advocate for a clean sport. I’m consulting with my advisors right now to explore all of my options and intend to fight this allegation and clear my name.”
Both Globo in Brazil and the UFC had decided to keep Silva as one of the coaches of the next season of The Ultimate Fighter Brazil, but it’s not happening as the Nevada Athletic Commission wouldn’t allow it. As noted last week, there is a precedent for that ruling, because a coach on a show filmed in Nevada needs a seconds license, and if somebody is suspended, they are unable to get licensed. The UFC had wanted Chael Sonnen and Michael Bisping to coach an American season on FX, but the Nevada commission wouldn’t license Sonnen due to a suspension in California in a drug testing violation.
Because the show airs on Brazil’s biggest network, and thus it needs to have millions of viewers weekly to be a success, the feeling was that it needs major celebrity firepower. Silva is one of the biggest celebrities currently in Brazil.
On 2/9, the UFC announced Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira as Silva’s replacement after the commission made its ruling.
“Anderson Silva has been one of the greatest athletes this sport has ever seen,” said White. “He has had a long and distinguished career in mixed martial arts. In his nine years with the UFC, Anderson has never tested positive for a banned substance. In light of this, we want to ensure Anderson gets his due process and we will support him during his time. While this process plays out, Anderson will continue in his role as coach of The Ultimate Fighter Brazil. Of course, we will continue to monitor the actions of the Nevada State Athletic Commission.
“We fully support the Commission’s out-of-competition drug testing program, which we have financed when requested over the past two years. Testing of this nature is important to help keep this sport clean. The director at the laboratory in Salt Lake City has now explained the timing of Anderson’s test results and why the Commission and the UFC did not receive the results until February 3, after the fight.
“One all the results have been made public and the Nevada Athletic Commission has rendered its decision, we will respect the process and move forward accordingly.”
Globo told MMAFighting.com, “Keep Anderson on TUF until all the results are released and the Nevada State Athletic Commission has made its decision, it was a decision made in agreement with UFC.”
After the ruling, the UFC announced, “The UFC and Globo, the show’s Brazilian broadcaster, respect the Commission’s decision, which will allow Silva to focus his attention on the matter before the Commission. Anderson Silva has been an amazing champion and a true ambassador of the sport of mixed martial arts and the UFC will continue to support him as this process unfolds.”
The show had started filming on 2/2 in Las Vegas, so Silva had just started filming as coach when the test results came in. Silva will be in the first few episodes as coach before both
Nogueira Brothers (Antonio Rogerio Nogueira will be the leading assistant coach) will take over the team, in coaching against a team led by Mauricio “Shogun” Rua. Nogueira and Rua will not fight at the end of the season.
As noted last week, some have claimed that Silva doing steroids would make sense in aiding his recovery from a broken leg suffered on December 28, 2013. However, Drostanolone and Androstane are not steroids used for the healing process, but drugs used to aid in maintaining muscle while on a heavy diet. Human Growth Hormone would be one of the drugs likely used to heal a broken leg, which is virtually impossible to reliably test for, and whatever drugs were or weren’t used for repairing his injury would have been taken in early 2014. The two drugs in question, to show up on a test that was administered on 1/9, would have both had to be used later than mid-December.
The case of Diaz is even crazier in some ways, because few knew it, but Diaz came very close to not being allowed to fight.
Diaz had not applied for a license in Nevada during almost all of the promotion of the fight. Because of his two previous test failures and suspensions for marijuana use in 2007 and 2012 in Nevada, the commission wouldn’t license him until he submitted a clean drug test.
According to Cesar Gracie, Diaz has taken several drug tests to be submitted, but in every case, he had failed for marijuana. He wasn’t able to pass a test, the results which he then provided to the commission, until a few days before the fight.
“It’s not an anomaly,” said Bob Bennett, the commission Executive Director to MMAFighting.com regarding a main event fighter not being licensed until a few days before the fight. “We do get them (applications) at the last second. We’d prefer not to, because it creates problems. But don’t think we didn’t contact the promoters. We did contact the promoters. We said, `We need a clean bill of health from Nick or he isn’t fighting.’”
Diaz’s license application came in 1/28, the Wednesday before the Saturday of the fight. The only notable thing on his license was that he has two DUI cases in California pending, one from November 28, 2013 and the other from September 6, 2014.
The key to the Diaz test failure was the amount of marijuana in his system in his test taken the night of the fight.
Generally, a positive test for marijuana would be 15 nanograms per milliliter (ng/mL). Until 2013, the Nevada commission would consider anything under 50 ng/mL as a negative. In 2013, after lobbying from the UFC and Marc Ratner, who argued that times have changed in regard to the public’s perception of marijuana, noting its legal in several states, and the commission raised the level to 150 ng/mL at that time. When tested positive after the Gomi fight in 2007, his level was 175 ng/mL, but his level after the Silva fight was 300 ng/mL. Since Diaz was able to provide a “clean” (as in under 150 ng/mL) test a few days before the fight, and to come back with such a high number, it would indicate substantial usage very close to fight time.
While Gracie claimed Diaz did not smoke after the initial test, and blamed the high reading on exertion of the fight affecting the test result, Bennett claimed that the test result showed it was obvious that after he was able to provide a negative test, he went back to smoking again.
Nessun commento:
Posta un commento