Keith Kizer doesn’t seem remotely fazed by accusations that the Nevada State Athletic Commission is picking on UFC welterweight Nick Diaz.
In fact, the NSAC executive director left no mistake about it when he reiterated his claim that Nick Diaz drank 24 bottles of water after his UFC 143 defeat against current interim welterweight champion Carlos Condit. Diaz allegedly did so to cleanse his system before his pre-fight drug test, which resulted in a positive test for marijuana metabolites.
Kizer described the scenario in detail to MiddleEasy, telling them where that news came from:
[That story] came from [Diaz] drinking a lot of water afterwards.
Those water bottles were 8-ounce bottles, so 24 bottles is about a gallon-and-a-half if my math is right. I saw what [Diaz] drank. And we know why. And you can play games about it if you want, but we know why.
Kizer also stated that he accepted offers from Diaz‘s head trainer, Cesar Gracie, to sit down with attorneys and discuss the current lawsuit between Diaz and the NSAC, but Gracie never returned their last phone call:
[Gracie] called me during the case and said, “Look, I want to sit with you. Nick and I want to sit down with you.” I said, “Look, Cesar, you gotta call Ross Goodman. He’s the attorney. You gotta go through him. We’re happy to do that, we’ve offered it several times to Ross. [Cesar] said “I will call Ross right away.” We never heard back from him after that. I don’t know what the conversation was between him and Ross, but we’ve always a good relationship. I expect to have a good one with Cesar in the future.
According to Kizer, the NSAC filed its legal brief on October 29th. Provided that Ross Goodman (Diaz‘s attorney) submits his own paperwork on time, the case will go to a judge’s hearing by December this year.
Kizer also commented on therapeutic use exemption (TUE) for fighters and how the NSAC would likely deal with marijuana. He stated that as long as athletes had “a legitimate medical condition” and got a physician to approve paperwork, the commission would “look at it.”
Diaz is currently serving a one-year suspension for his positive drug test and will be free to reapply for a fighter’s license on February 3rd.
Prior to Diaz‘s fight with Condit, he had been expected to face Georges St-Pierre for the UFC Welterweight Championship at UFC 137. However, UFC president Dana White dropped Diaz from the match after Diaz failed to appear at three press conferences supporting the title fight.
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