The comeback victory of Anderson Silva, regarded as the greatest mixed martial arts fighter of all time, last January 31 against Nick Diaz in their middleweight encounter held at the MGM Grand during the main event of the pay-per-view UFC 183 may likely be nullified because he and his opponent both failed the drug tests.
Results of the drug tests previously conducted on the two returning UFC fighters indicate that Silva tested positive for two anabolic steroids – drostanolone and androstane – while Diaz has elevated levels of marijuana metabolites in his system, reports Yahoo! Sports.
It is the first time for Silva to fail in a drug test, while Diaz already has two before, making the current failure, his third one.
What was even more revealing for Silva’s drug test is that the drostanolone and androstane were discovered as part of an out-of-competition test given by the Nevada Athletic Commission on January 9. It was only on February 3 that the test results were handed to the Nevada Athletic State Commission by the Sports Medicine Research and Testing Laboratory based in Salt Lake City, Utah.
Late results
Commission chairman Francisco Aguilar is also surprised why it took more than three weeks before he got the results to the test because had he gotten it earlier, he would have not allowed Silva to compete in the UFC 183.
Aguilar said he would have no problem calling the fight off only if had gotten the result sooner. He said that the substances found on Silva’s system are not acceptable and it’s a good thing that there is an out-of-competition test that was made.
After the fight with Nick Diaz, Silva has undergone two post-fight drug tests too, but whose results have yet to be returned. The two tests include one screen for drug abuse and another screen for performance-enhancing drugs.
Silva’s prior test showed performance-enhancing drugs while Diaz’s prior screens showed traces of drug abuse.
Victory will go for naught
The Nevada Athletic State Commission will discuss and decide on what to do with the result of Silva’s fight with Diaz. But it is likely that the commission will rule it a no-contest and Silva’s unanimous victory will completely go for naught.
Silva will also have to undergo a disciplinary hearing on February 17. The sad part of it all for the UFC middleweight fighter is that his license will be suspended pending a full hearing. A first offender, which is the case with Silva, is generally meted with a nine-month suspension.
Anderson Silva was on the comeback trail to the UFC after suffering a gory broken leg in a title fight against Chris Weidman on December 28, 2013. Although his match with Nick Diaz was a non-title match, it was the main event of UFC 183 indicating how big an MMA fighter Silva is. He unanimously defeated Diaz with the scores of 50-45, 50-45 and 49-46.