UFC President Dana White has weighed in on Nick Diaz’s failed drug test with a prepared statement that’s tamer than most UFC fans would probably expect from White.
“I am beyond disappointed that he tested positive for marijuana,” White said in the statement that the UFC distributed to the media. “It is now in the hands of the Nevada State Athletic Commission.”
The prepared statement comes across like something a PR staffer would write for White, not like something White would say himself: It doesn’t contain any F-bombs, and it doesn’t say anything about what this does for Diaz’s future with the UFC. White has also been silent on Twitter, where he usually doesn’t hesitate to mix it up with fans when controversy explodes in the UFC.
But the way White is responding may demonstrate just how much he’s seething that Diaz continues to refuse to “play the game” the right way. White may be so angry about Diaz’s unprofessionalism that he doesn’t want to say a word because he knows his anger may lead him to take things too far.
Because this is Diaz’s second positive marijuana test, the Nevada State Athletic Commission may suspend him for a full year. That would take any decision about what to do with Diaz out of White’s hands until February of 2013. By then, White may have simmered down long enough that he’s willing to give Diaz another chance.
Or by then the UFC’s welterweight division may have moved on without Diaz, and White may decide to let Diaz go entirely, and let him be a disappointment for some other promotion.