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By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief
Nick Diaz is facing discipline from the Nevada Athletic Commission once again following a third positive drug test for marijuana out of his fight at UFC 183 in January. However, according to a report from MMAJunkie.com, there's a unique wrinkle to this failed test, as Diaz passed two others conducted the same night.
Per the report, Diaz was tested three times on January 31, giving urine samples before his fight with Anderson Silva at 7:12PM, right after the fight at 10:38PM, and one final time at 11:55PM.
The samples were sent to both the Sports Medicine Research and Testing Laboratory and Quest Diagnostics for testing, with the 10:38PM sample showing marijuana metabolites in his system at double the allowable 150ng/dl limit for the commission.
According to the report, the commission complaint against Diaz "cites the Quest Diagnostics findings as the basis for its complaint, also noting the fighter's failure to disclose his use of marijuana on pre-fight medical paperwork. The test documents from Quest are included as exhibits to the complaint. The SMRTL test results are not."
Diaz has yet to appear in front of the commission for a disciplinary hearing on this matter, but he and his attorney will try to mount a defense at that time.
Penick's Analysis: Is it possible the exertion of the fight could have caused any metabolites stored in his system to be released, even if he hadn't used in the last week or more into the event? That's the question here, and it seems very murky that one test would come back positive, while two others came back negative. Also, that those tests weren't put in the complaint against Diaz gives him and his team another argument to use against discipline. Of course, the lack of "disclosure" in this case could ultimately be the hill that the NAC plans to die on, so even if he has a valid argument in his defense, it may not mean much to the commission.
[Nick Diaz art by Grant Gould (c) MMATorch.com]
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Jamie Penick, editor-in-chief
(mmatorcheditor@gmail.com)
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