At its monthly meeting held on Thursday, the Nevada State Athletic Commission tabled the disciplinary hearing of Wanderlei Silva due to the fighter’s motion to dismiss the disciplinary complaint filed against him. No date had been set for the continued hearing.
As you recall, at the NAC hearing in June, Silva admitted he evaded a mandatory drug test in leading up to his July showdown with Chael Sonnen. He also claimed he was taking anti-inflammatories and a diuretic at this time. Ironically, the fight was scrapped altogether due to Sonnen’s failed tests. The commission did not have time to properly respond to the complaint due to the late filing of the motion and continued the hearing as a result.
UPDATED: Per Kevin Iole at Yahoo! Sports, Silva’s attorney Ross Goodman is challenging NAC 467.850 which indicates that the NAC has jurisdiction over a “licensee.” The argument asserted by Goodman, is that Silva is a “non-licensee” and thus the NAC had no jurisdiction to employ the drug test over Silva at that time.
Payout Perspective:
The continuation of the hearing is a likely formality as the NAC wants to ensure that Silva has due process for this complaint to ensure that there will not be any further appeals from Silva’s camp. It would be unlikely that the UFC is looking to book Silva any time soon. From Silva’s perspective, this is reputation management and perhaps a way to mitigate any sort of prolonged suspension since he’s nearing the end of his career. Of course, Goodman’s argument that the NAC did not have jurisdiction over Silva since he was not licensed at the time is a compelling argument. But is it persuasive?
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