There's an old joke about lawyers and lying which has a punchline that also answers the question "How can you tell if Wanderlei Silva is saying something stupid?" Answer: His lips are moving. Since being banned from competition for life by the Nevada Athletic Commission for running out on a drug test, Silva has continued to torment us with his thoughts and rants on his predicament in MMA.
Silva really raises the stakes with his latest bout of idiocy. His statement is consistent with the defense his team is taking in attempting to get his ban revoked. Silva's filing against the NAC argues that as he was not licensed when he skipped out on the random drug test, the NAC had no jurisdiction to ban him from MMA (you can check out an analysis of Silva's lawsuit against the NAC in a previous Legal Take here). Beyond being consistent, Silva now ups the ante by saying fighters should have no restrictions whatsoever other than on fight night.
Silva's argument is inherently flawed, not to mention idiotic. Let's just assume that when Silva says a fighter has a right to do "anything he wants" he's talking about using substances and not doing other illegal activities, like say, murdering someone. Granted, Silva's ridiculously stupid statements make this assumption at least somewhat dangerous, but for the sake discussion let's just assume it anyway. NAC 467.850 bans certain substances both explicitly as well as by reference to the World Anti-Doping Agency. So in that sense, Silva is wrong, but it's obvious he's arguing more about what SHOULD be allowed as opposed to what IS allowed.
Silva's statement was one he made without much obvious forethought. Let's big picture here and remove the NAC and other sports governing bodies from the equation. There are some things that people (MMA fighters being a subset of the group people) cannot do without legal consequence. This includes taking certain drugs and controlled substances, some of which can only be legally obtained and used by prescription, and some of which can never be used for any reason.
Narrowing our focus to athletes and MMA, athletic commissions have compelling reasons both to promote fairness and safety for their fighters and competitions. Any professional wrestling fan can probably rattle off the names of several wrestlers who passed at an early age due to drug and steroid related issues. In addition to protecting athletes from themselves, governing bodies also want to protect the fighters Mr. Roid Rage (or Ms., woman are liberated and dammit, they can illegally do steroids if they want to!) is trying to beat senseless.
Silva's comment is just so incredibly dumb and nonsensical, it doesn't take much of a complicated analysis to rip it apart or point out the obvious flaws in his thinking. Based on his stance and rather (roid?) rage filled videos and comments, perhaps he has his own personal reasons for saying what he does.
Not really much to see here. Losing the preliminary injunction battle was a huge blow to Jackson's hopes of getting out of his Bellator deal. The injunction gave numerous reasons to believe that Jackson will ultimately lose the lawsuit if he continues to fight it, which we touched on in last week's bonus Legal Take.
Jackson not being done yet could be a reference to many things; his fighting career, his legal battle, bad spelling on Instagram posts. If he is indeed referring to continue to fight Bellator in their attempts to hold them to a contract they still feel is valid, we may just have an issue of pride and ego getting in the way of common sense.
Jackson is free to blow through money and pay attorneys to fight a losing cause, but clearing thinking would dictate he sits down with Bellator and see if there's some sort of compromise or settlement they can reach. If not, his choices are likely earning money fighting under the Bellator banner, or earning money doing something that's not related to MMA. There's also the option of earning no money at all, as there isn't a huge clamor for his "acting," at least not to the degree that would pay him what he'd make fighting for Bellator. Right now, I'm leaning toward saying we'll see him fight for Bellator again. An MMA fighter's shelf life is limited, hopefully he'll see this before blowing money and some of his few remaining earning years in a losing battle.
Well that escalated and then disappeared rather quickly. Last week the Fox Sports announced that a very exciting and fan friendly fight was going to be added to what was becoming an extremely stacked UFC 189 card. I mean really, Conor McGregor and Nate Diaz on the same card? Can you imagine the trash talk? Give me five to one odds that McGregor and Diaz end up fighting at a UFC 189 press conference and I'll take you up on that (I'll also take two to one that Diaz no shows said conference).
But alas, it was not meant to be. Despite the fight being announced, Diaz quickly made it known to the world that he hadn't agreed to such a fight. While Matt Brown did post pictures to Instagram of his signed fight deal with Diaz, it was only Brown's agreement, and not one that committed Diaz to the fight (the pictures have since been taken down, but you can view them here. You have to imagine that the UFC had some sort of conversations with Diaz's management that made them feel confident that the fight was going to happen. Unfortunately that confidence was not because of a signed fight agreement, and as such, it enabled Diaz to continue to take more potshots at his employer. It also makes the UFC continue to look rather bush league, as this kind of sloppy work and lack of due diligence is not befitting of a company valued in the billions.
Look, if Diaz has shown us anything, he's a pain in the ass to deal with. He bitches about money, is wholly unreliable, and takes many opportunities to insult the people who pay him. Even more annoying if you're the UFC, he's top 15, mayyyyybe top 10, in his division(s), yet fans love seeing him and his equally aggravating, can't-stop-smoking-pot-for-anything brother fight like they're the best fighters on the planet. Even with his irritating behavior, the UFC has an asset with him that's worth having. He brings eyes to fights, which brings money to the UFC. While they'd love to release him and not deal with the headaches, he'd be scooped up so fast by Bellator who would love to have such a big draw on their hands.
I'm not sure if Diaz understands his leverage, or if his general inability to keep his mouth shut has just caused him to stumble into using it. Regardless, the country has laws against involuntary servitude, as while the UFC may try to bully Diaz into taking fights he doesn't want at pay he doesn't want to, there's nothing they can do to force him to put his name to a page if he doesn't want to, even if it is to his own financial detriment. The UFC is within their rights to try pressure Diaz to fight. That said, there's an old saying about counting and chickens and the like. The UFC may want to revisit those wise words to avoid these kinds of public embarrassments in the future.
Michael Bane is an attorney and MMA enthusiast working out of Chicago, Illinois.
DON'T GO YET... WE SUGGEST THESE MMATORCH ARTICLES, TOO!
Jamie Penick, editor-in-chief
(mmatorcheditor@gmail.com)
STAFF COLUMNISTS: Shawn Ennis - Jason Amadi
Frank Hyden - Rich Hansen
Chris Park - Matt Pelkey
Interested in joining MMATorch's writing team? Send idea for a theme to your column (for Specialist section) or area of interest (i.e. TV Reporter) along with a sample of writing to mmatorch@gmail.com.
