Hammer Time: Rather Than Dance Around It, The UFC Needs To Come Down Hard on Anderson Silva and Nick Diaz

By Raphael Garcia

The month of February is barely four days old and the Ultimate Fighting Championship has already found itself in yet another embarrassing situation. Mere weeks after the promotion’s biggest champion in Jon Jones admitted himself into — then removed himself from — a drug rehab clinic for cocaine usage, two of the organization’s top stars failed tests for their UFC 183 main event matchup. Reportedly, both Anderson Silva and Nick Diaz have failed drug tests related to the fight that occurred last weekend. In response, the UFC needs to take a hard line stance and act harshly against these two athletes.

According to multiple media outlets, as well as a release from the UFC, Anderson Silva’s pre-fight test returned with drostanolone metabolites. The test was administered on January 9, but the results were not made public until Tuesday, February 3.

Diaz, on the other hand, tested positive for marijuana for the third time in his MMA career. He had previously failed tests in 2007 when he faced Takanori Gomi, as well as in 2012 in conjunction with his fight against Carlos Condit at UFC 143.

These situations are not new to the UFC. Many fighters on the roster have failed tests at some point in their careers. Their punishments have varied from suspensions to firings. However, this situation, at this time in the year, requires the UFC to respond in a manner that will send a message to fighters, fans, and media that these actions will no longer be tolerated.

In Silva, the UFC is dealing with a 39-year old fighter who seems unsure of his MMA career. After the stunning knockout and horrific injury he suffered in back-to-back fights against Chris Weidman, his victory over Diaz would have been a nice way to cap off his career. Unfortunately, this situation sullies the whole victory.

And if Silva had elected to continue fighting, instead of being able to promote him as the returning champion looking to build his way back to a title shot, the UFC is now clearly placed in a situation where its commentators and officials must mention his name along with other “villains” such as Vitor Belfort and Sean Sherk. Before UFC 183, UFC President Dana White mentioned that Silva could earn himself a title shot from this win. That cannot and should not happen at this point.

What should happen is that the company should quietly convince Silva that he should walk away from the sport. Rather than deal with all of the negative publicity that will come from this, both the company and the fighter should show remorse, as Silva retreats from the public eye. Anything else would be a bigger black eye to the sport, even if the UFC tried to distance itself from this problem.

As for Diaz, he needs to be cut from the promotion. Even though marijuana is a controversial drug that has become acceptable in many communities, the fact remains that it is still 100 percent against the rules in athletic competition. While further evidence may show that Diaz was not using “in-competition,” Diaz has still shown a propensity to continually ignore the rules that govern the sport in which he participates.

These repercussions should not come from malice. Rather, this is a stance that the UFC must take in order to show that it is no longer willing to tolerate athletes that put the viability of the promotion at stake. Other sports such as football do not have to deal with the type of backlash that the UFC does when multiple athletes fail drug tests. However, this situation continually occurs within mixed martial arts, and if the UFC fails to take a true stance on the situation, the overall business of the sport is harmed. Anderson Silva and Nick Diaz are both great athletes, but their actions leading into UFC 183 need to be dealt with in a way that proves that the company that employs them will no longer tolerate it. Neither fighter should compete in the UFC again.