Wanderlei Silva Skips NAC Meeting, Hearing Now Under ‘Consideration’ For A Later Date

UFC middleweight Wanderlei Silva chose not to attend his scheduled hearing with the Nevada Athletic Commission (NAC) yesterday, choosing to go on a tour around Canada instead.

“The Axe Murderer” was set to face the NAC to discuss his failure to submit a random drug test in May ahead of his planned bout against Chael Sonnen at UFC 175. Sonnen submitted two random test which both came back positive for banned substances, he subsequently retired the following day.

Silva decided not to attend the meeting but he told MMAFighting.com he is confident the correct decision will be made:

“I had already scheduled this tour in Canada. They told me (about the meeting) after I scheduled my commitments here, but my lawyer will be there and he will clarify everything.

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The commission will make a coherent decision and will apply the law.”

In his absence, the former Pride middleweight champion’s legal team filed a motion to dismay all disciplinary action against him on grounds that the commission had no jurisdiction to discipline him for his skipped test.

In a letter addressed to Nevada Deputy Attorney General Christopher Eccles, which was obtained by MMAFighting, Silva’s lawyer Ross Goodman argues that the NAC have no jurisdiction to take action against the 38-year old as he was not licensed by the commission at the time of the test.

From the letter:

“It is abundantly clear that the NSAC lacks jurisdiction to take disciplinary action over Mr. Silva, a non-licensee, for not submitting to testing that the NSAC had no authority to order.

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The NSAC tacitly recognizes their lack of jurisdiction to discipline Mr. Silva by removing any reference to licensee under the Jurisdiction section of the Complaint 1-4. A review of other Complaints for Disciplinary Action consistently relies on the unarmed combatants’ status as a ‘licensee’ as the jurisdictional basis for the NSAC’s authority to seek discipline. Here, the NSAC cannot cure this jurisdictional defect by eliminating the phrase ‘licensee’ and simply refer to Mr. Silva as an ‘unarmed combatant.

Mr. Silva is not an unarmed combatant because he did not compete in UFC 175. … The NSAC has never been vested with the authority to direct or order non-licensed persons to submit to a chemical test. Consequently, the NSAC lacks jurisdiction to seek disciplinary action against Mr. Silva, and any attempt to do so, clearly exceeds the NSAC’s limited statutory jurisdiction.”

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If thats the case, Silva may have dodged a bullet by avoiding the test as the NAC may have no grounds on which to prosecute him. With the motion in place the commission decided to push the Brazilian’s hearing to a later date for more consideration.

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