MMA Fighting reports that the Nevada Athletic Commission has never tested Vitor Belfort since his appearance before the commission in July. Instead, the commission indicated that the state of California would handle the drug testing since it appears that Belfort’s next fight would be in California.
Although there has not been any official fight announcement for Belfort-Chris Weidman, Ariel Helwani’s interview with NAC head Bob Bennett seemed to indicate that Weidman’s next title defense would occur in the state.
You may recall that the NAC granted Belfort a conditional license for a fight that was to take place in December in Nevada but for Weidman’s hand injury which caused the current delay in that fight. The NAC told Belfort in July that he would be subject to extensive drug tests (both blood and urine) throughout the rest of his career as a result of a failed drug test this past February.
California State Athletic Commission executive officer Andy Foster indicated that he would test Belfort but nothing has yet to be planned. Foster stated that the tentative plan was to test Belfort “three-to-five times” at random before the fight as well as fight night.
Payout Perspective:
Well this doesn’t look good for the NAC. Certainly, the NAC could have said they intended to test Belfort but Weidman’s injury did not make it an immediate need. But, not only does it appear that the NAC was just giving the public “lip service” about its hard line about fighters that break the rules, it now is passing off this responsibility to California. In addition, the article states that Belfort appeared willing to go through the testing as he had given the NAC all of his contact information. For the NAC to not at least conduct one test between July and now is a disappointment. Not only does it show that it did not follow through with its word of random testing, it is a sign to fighters that there is a possibility that they can get away with things like this.
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