Days after UFC middleweight champion Chris Weidman questioned the Nevada State Athletic Commission for not drug testing Vitor Belfort leading up to their UFC 184 bout, “The Phenom” has submitted to a blood and urine sample. Although “The Phenom” was granted a conditional license by the NSAC back in July, this was the first time […]
Days after UFC middleweight champion Chris Weidman questioned the Nevada State Athletic Commission for not drug testing Vitor Belfort leading up to their UFC 184 bout, “The Phenom” has submitted to a blood and urine sample. Although “The Phenom” was granted a conditional license by the NSAC back in July, this was the first time […]
(“You have brought great shame upon your chest hair on this day, Mr. Drysdale.” — Brian Ebersole. Photo via MMAJunkie)
When we last checked in with the Nevada State Athletic Commission’s crack team of regulators, we learned that they had yet to drug test middleweight contender/former TRT user/former steroid cheat Vitor Belfort since relicensing him on July 23rd. That NSAC commissioner Anthony Marnell had promised to test Belfort “until the day he retired” before immediately shirking the responsibility to the California State Athletic Commission probably should have come as a big surprise to us. Yet it did not.
And for our second installment of “Great Job, Nevada!”, we return to July, which was apparently a pretty busy month for the NSAC. Aside from the whole Vitor Belfort re-licensing issue, they had to deal with Kevin Casey and Robert Drysdale, who tested positive for drostanolone and elevated testosterone, respectively, at UFC 175 and the TUF 19 Finale (respectfully). While Casey was hit with a $5,600 fine and a year-long suspension almost immediately, Drysdale’s case was pushed back for whatever reason, despite the the fact that it had been his second-such failed test in less than two fights under the UFC banner.
In any case, the word has been handed down and it looks like Drysdale is destined to become one of those “what could’ve been”-type fighters…
(“You have brought great shame upon your chest hair on this day, Mr. Drysdale.” — Brian Ebersole. Photo via MMAJunkie)
When we last checked in with the Nevada State Athletic Commission’s crack team of regulators, we learned that they had yet to drug test middleweight contender/former TRT user/former steroid cheat Vitor Belfort since relicensing him on July 23rd. That NSAC commissioner Anthony Marnell had promised to test Belfort “until the day he retired” before immediately shirking the responsibility to the California State Athletic Commission probably should have come as a big surprise to us. Yet it did not.
And for our second installment of “Great Job, Nevada!”, we return to July, which was apparently a pretty busy month for the NSAC. Aside from the whole Vitor Belfort re-licensing issue, they had to deal with Kevin Casey and Robert Drysdale, who tested positive for drostanolone and elevated testosterone, respectively, at UFC 175 and the TUF 19 Finale (respectfully). While Casey was hit with a $5,600 fine and a year-long suspension almost immediately, Drysdale’s case was pushed back for whatever reason, despite the the fact that it had been his second-such failed test in less than two fights under the UFC banner.
In any case, the word has been handed down and it looks like Drysdale is destined to become one of those “what could’ve been”-type fighters (via MMAFighting):
“I think we have given the industry adequate time to adjust to our elimination of this type of an exemption,” said Commissioner Skip Avansino.
As a result of his failed test, the NAC imposed a one-year suspension on Drysdale retroactive to his July fight, fined Drysdale 33-percent of his $16,000 fight purse ($5,280), and overturned his win over Berish into a no contest.
Why Drysdale is still employed with the UFC is anyone’s guess, but we’d just like to thank those continuously on-point folks over in Nevada for wrapping this up in a timely a manner as possible. (*armpit fart*)
(Well, the visual evidence is definitely on Belfort’s side.)
Back in July, UFC middleweight Vitor Belfort went before the Nevada State Athletic Commission to answer for his failed drug test for elevated testosterone in February. It went pretty well, which is completely unsurprising since a big-money fight against Chris Weidman hung in the balance. Belfort was given a conditional license, and his title challenge against Weidman was immediately booked for December 6th in Las Vegas.
But NSAC commissioner Anthony Marnell left Belfort with this dire warning: “[W]e’re going to drug test you to the day you retire…We, in my opinion, should be in and around your career until the day you call it quits.”
Hell yeah! Nevada is gonna be up in them guts, son! [Ed. note: Gross.]
Except, no, not really. The truth is, Belfort hasn’t been drug-tested at all (!) since July 23rd, and the NSAC has no intention of testing him before his fight against Weidman, since that fight will now likely take place in California in late February at UFC 184. MMAFighting’s Ariel Helwani breaks it:
On Wednesday, MMAFighting.com spoke to NAC executive director Bob Bennett, who said he currently has no plans in place to randomly test Belfort because the UFC recently informed the commission that the Weidman vs. Belfort fight would probably take place in California next year. (Note: the UFC has yet to publicly announce the official date and location of the title fight, however, UFC president Dana White recently said it would happen in February.) Bennett also said the commission had yet to test Belfort, despite the fact that the title fight was official for two months before Weidman had to pull out. Weidman confirmed he had not been tested, as well.
Bennett was confident that California State Athletic Commission executive officer Andy Foster “will spearhead” the Belfort testing, if the fight does in fact end up in California.
(Well, the visual evidence is definitely on Belfort’s side.)
Back in July, UFC middleweight Vitor Belfort went before the Nevada State Athletic Commission to answer for his failed drug test for elevated testosterone in February. It went pretty well, which is completely unsurprising since a big-money fight against Chris Weidman hung in the balance. Belfort was given a conditional license, and his title challenge against Weidman was immediately booked for December 6th in Las Vegas.
But NSAC commissioner Anthony Marnell left Belfort with this dire warning: “[W]e’re going to drug test you to the day you retire…We, in my opinion, should be in and around your career until the day you call it quits.”
Hell yeah! Nevada is gonna be up in them guts, son! [Ed. note: Gross.]
Except, no, not really. The truth is, Belfort hasn’t been drug-tested at all (!) since July 23rd, and the NSAC has no intention of testing him before his fight against Weidman, since that fight will now likely take place in California in late February at UFC 184. MMAFighting’s Ariel Helwani breaks it:
On Wednesday, MMAFighting.com spoke to NAC executive director Bob Bennett, who said he currently has no plans in place to randomly test Belfort because the UFC recently informed the commission that the Weidman vs. Belfort fight would probably take place in California next year. (Note: the UFC has yet to publicly announce the official date and location of the title fight, however, UFC president Dana White recently said it would happen in February.) Bennett also said the commission had yet to test Belfort, despite the fact that the title fight was official for two months before Weidman had to pull out. Weidman confirmed he had not been tested, as well.
Bennett was confident that California State Athletic Commission executive officer Andy Foster “will spearhead” the Belfort testing, if the fight does in fact end up in California.
Foster then told MMAFighting.com that the UFC informally informed him of their current plan to hold the fight at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, however, they have yet to officially make that request…
A representative from Belfort’s management team, OTB Fight, confirmed that the NAC had yet to test Belfort, however, they said Belfort has provided them all of his addresses (home, office, gym), as well as kept them in the loop whenever he traveled so that he could easily be reached. Belfort has also been administering his own drug tests as of late.
So, to summarize: The Nevada commission left Belfort unsupervised for three full months after his re-licensing hearing, and is now washing its hands of the entire matter because California will probably deal with it. Nevada’s idea of getting tough is doing literally nothing. Chris Weidman is as shocked as we are.
Luckily, California will indeed take on the responsibility that the NSAC has shirked. From the MMAFighting report:
[Andy] Foster, who said in August that the CSAC plans on tripling its drug testing budget next year, told MMAFighting.com that while he has yet to decide how many times he will randomly test Belfort because the fight date isn’t locked in yet, he certainly planned on doing so.
“He’s not going to get a free pass,” Foster said. “He will have blood and urine randomly tested.
“I would be shocked and amazed if he cheated.”
Foster said his tentative plan is to test Belfort three-to-five times randomly before the fight, as well as the night of the event. He also plans on making Belfort pay for all drug testing costs “as a condition of licensure.” According to Foster, Belfort will also most likely have to submit a clean test with his license application whenever that comes time.
When reached by MMAFighting.com on Wednesday, Foster said he had yet to decide how many times he will randomly test Weidman before the fight. He wasn’t quite sure if testing Weidman, who has never failed a drug test before, as many times as Belfort was warranted. Weidman told MMAFighting.com that he was open to being randomly drug tested as many times as the commission wanted.
Well, at least it’s in the hands of professionals now. The last commission you’d want handling Vitor Belfort’s drug testing is the one that would hire Chael Sonnen as an expert.
Nevada State Athletic Commission Executive Director Bob Bennett feels the chances are “very slim” that the governing body would overrule a Yoel Romero Round 3 TKO over Tim Kennedy at UFC 178—in the event an appeal is filed by Kennedy’s camp. Bennett told MMA Fighting that he would be surprised to see the result of […]
Nevada State Athletic Commission Executive Director Bob Bennett feels the chances are “very slim” that the governing body would overrule a Yoel Romero Round 3 TKO over Tim Kennedy at UFC 178—in the event an appeal is filed by Kennedy’s camp. Bennett told MMA Fighting that he would be surprised to see the result of […]
Former PRIDE champ and UFC veteran Wanderlei Silva is less than thrilled after being handed a lifetime ban by the Nevada State Athletic Commission Tuesday, and he isn’t shy about saying so. The Axe Murderer was issued a precedent-setting lifetime ban by the commission, per Luke Thomas of MMA Fighting, after refusing a random drug […]
Former PRIDE champ and UFC veteran Wanderlei Silva is less than thrilled after being handed a lifetime ban by the Nevada State Athletic Commission Tuesday, and he isn’t shy about saying so. The Axe Murderer was issued a precedent-setting lifetime ban by the commission, per Luke Thomas of MMA Fighting, after refusing a random drug […]
(For just the price of a cup of coffee a day, you can help this child AFFORD A FIGHT PASS SUBSCRIPTION TO WATCH VINTAGE WANDERLEI SILVA KICK SOME ASS! HYEAAHHH!!!)
Moments after Silva was handed his punishment, Josh Gross reported that Silva would in fact be repealing the verdict within 30 days through attorney Ross Goodman, who referred to the NSAC as a “kangaroo court” (presumably before dropping the mic and peacing out that bitch). Goodman’s assessment was not entirely ungrounded, as Chuck Mindenhall pointed out in his hilarious write-up of yesterday’s proceedings.
Thank you my friends, you got the power and you give it for whoever you want. Thank you very much for everything. And for you that desire my fall, come to me, the war is only in the beginning you sons of bitches. You’re going to see that we rule this shit. Bunch of fops.
I’ll give Wanderlei this, the man has a surprisingly diverse vocabulary for a guy who spends the majority of his free time shooting black-and-white vlogs set to bro rock in his basement.
(For just the price of a cup of coffee a day, you can help this child AFFORD A FIGHT PASS SUBSCRIPTION TO WATCH VINTAGE WANDERLEI SILVA KICK SOME ASS! HYEAAHHH!!!)
Moments after Silva was handed his punishment, Josh Gross reported that Silva would in fact be repealing the verdict within 30 days through attorney Ross Goodman, who referred to the NSAC as a “kangaroo court” (presumably before dropping the mic and peacing out that bitch). Goodman’s assessment was not entirely ungrounded, as Chuck Mindenhall pointed out in his hilarious write-up of yesterday’s proceedings.
Thank you my friends, you got the power and you give it for whoever you want. Thank you very much for everything. And for you that desire my fall, come to me, the war is only in the beginning you sons of bitches. You’re going to see that we rule this shit. Bunch of fops.
I’ll give Wanderlei this, the man has a surprisingly diverse vocabulary for a guy who spends the majority of his free time shooting black-and-white vlogs set to bro rock in his basement.
Silva also attempted to rally his fans with the image above, which came with a slightly less nuanced call to arms.
No way! My fans no body take, thanks my guys! Doesn’t matter, we’re too many. We’re going to show our strength. You want a brawl, come to me and you’ll have, motherfuckers!!!!
I’m not sure what Wanderlei’s hoping to accomplish here, as a repeal seems all but impossible in light of the circumstances, but dammit, there’s just something about the NSAC’s skull-shattering incompetence and inconsistency that makes me want to see Wandy bring it all crumbling down. Something’s definitely wrong with me.
We’ll keep you updated as Wanderlei’s war with NSAC wages on, but for now, let’s just all gather round the fire, break out the acoustic guitar, and remember the good times.
I will remember you, Will you remember me? Don’t let your liiiiiiiiife pass you by, Weep not for the memories….
