In his continued (and unsolicited) lambasting of the UFC, Wanderlei Silva decided to go the tasteless and offensive route when he compared his current situation to being a slave. In his attempts to play the victim, Silva's goal appears to be to put public pressure on the UFC to release him from his contract. Unfortunately, as usual, Silva seems to be pretty oblivious to how he's coming across in his outbursts.
Fighter contracts with the UFC are generally for a specified number of fights, and they often contain matching clauses as well when the contracts expire. Silva had not completed his agreed upon number of fights when he made the mistake of running away from a random drug test prior to his scheduled fight with Chael Sonnen. The fight was called off, and given his subsequent retirement in September of last year, Silva has not completed the remaining fight(s) under his UFC agreement. Given his lifetime suspension by the Nevada ban from MMA competition by the Nevada State Athletic Commission, he's currently not eligible to finish out that contract.
So why does this matter anyway? If Silva really is retired with no plans to fight, why does he care that the UFC holds his fighting rights? The simple answer is that he might want to fight again, although that seems like a long shot given his age and lifetime ban. A more likely answer has to do with what happened in November of 2014 when Silva was scheduled to take part in a Bellator promotional event signing autographs for the sum of $10,000. Not bad pay for two hours of work spent writing your own name. Unfortunately for Silva, his agreement with the UFC also encompasses certain rights to his image when it comes to a professional fighter.
This stands to reason of course. It wouldn't make sense for a fighter to fight for the UFC but do a bunch of promotional work for Bellator. This was exactly what Silva was trying to do. The UFC threatened to sue to protect their rights under the agreement, and thus Silva didn't participate in the event. While he's understandably frustrated with the loss of potential income, Dana White is correct in saying Silva brought all this on himself. No one forced Silva to sign his contract with the UFC to begin with, and no one forced him to run away from a random drug test. If the UFC doesn't want to let Silva out of his contract for business reasons, that's their prerogative.
The continued pissing match between Bellator and the UFC is an interesting side note in this whole situation. There's very little chance that Bellator didn't know that the UFC still held Silva's rights, at best they were just willfully ignorant. The UFC's raid on Bellator's talent with the Rampage Jackson signing while's he's arguably still under contract may be a response on their part. Regardless, these are likely the last times we'll see the two MMA organizations passively or aggressively lock horns.
There's no downside to Anderson Silva's request to get his hearing postponed. The delay in the hearing won't keep Silva out of the cage any longer, as he'll be credited with time served under his temporary suspension. Hector Lombard just got hit with a doozy of a fine, and will have to stay out of the Octagon for a year. Lombard appealed for leniency citing both his age and the lack of previous failed drug tests, but that didn't stop the Nevada Athletic Commission from bringing down the hammer. At both his and Silva's ages, any lengthy suspension could effectively put an end to their careers.
The length of suspension handed down by the NAC is consistent with what the UFC has been advocating for, if not a little bit on the lighter side. These types of suspensions, coupled with increased random drug testing, may end up being an effective deterrent to PED abuse. Silva asked for a postponement supposedly to give his team time to research what could have caused his failed test, and try to present an effective defense. This indicates that Silva has every intention of fighting again, as there'd be no point in taking the time or spending the money otherwise. There's almost no chance he emerges punishment free, however. At best, he may come up with some sort of explanation that may mitigate what type of discipline the NAC hands out.
Lombard referenced trusting someone he should not have as a result for his failed test. Anthony Johnson suggested that Silva's failed tests happened for the same reason. This may be a (laughably) common problem in sports, although a cynical person would view it as an all-to-convenient excuse available to athletes who abuse PEDs. Even if Silva is able to show this is what happened in a clear and convincing manner, the NAC has virtually no choice but to hand out some sort of discipline. Setting the precedent that you can pass the blame onto someone else to escape the consequences of failing a drug test would be dangerous and only serve to encourage PED use. Silva will be disciplined, and something similar to what Lombard got wouldn't be unexpected.
Todd Duffee cited the Reebok deal as one of his chief motivating factors in wanting a fight with Frank Mir. As a fighter who had previously complained about his compensation, this isn't surprising reasoning coming from him, but that doesn't detract from its validity. The Reebok deal will compensate fighters based on their UFC rankings. Ultimately, fighters fight to earn a living and have bills to pay. Defeating a fighter like Mir gives Duffee a chance to move into a higher echelon of the heavyweight rankings. It will also give him the opportunity to fight even higher ranked opponents, advance even further up the ladder, and thus earn even more sponsorship money. While we don't know the exact workings or nature of the Reebok deal yet, it's at least significant enough that one fighter is now trying to map out fights at least partially based on it. Expect to see more call outs with this as a motivation in the future, even if it's not explicitly stated.
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Jamie Penick, editor-in-chief
(mmatorcheditor@gmail.com)
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