The fallout from the Chael Sonnen-Wanderlei Silva fight that had been scheduled for July 5th continues. The doomed UFC 175 fight, altered to Sonnen against Vitor Belfort after Wanderlei Silva allegedly dodged an NSAC-initiated surprise drug test (news which was broken by Sonnen himself on UFC Tonight), was pulled from the card altogether after Chael tested positive for banned substances earlier this month and announced his retirement from the sport. As of today, you can remove the "alleged" from the Silva story when it comes to dodging the drug test that set the whole debacle off: at an NSAC hearing earlier in the day, Silva admitted to avoiding the test, stating that he had been taking diuretics to reduce inflammation in a wrist he fractured while filming The Ultimate Fighter Brazil 3, coaching against Sonnen. To make a long story short, he knew the diuretics would show up on the test, so he bailed on it. Diuretics, while perfectly legal outside the competitive sports realm, are considered a banned substance by the NSAC, as well as most major sporting commissions and the Olympic games. As diuretics increase urine production, they decrease the amount of other banned substances found in urine, in essence serving as a masking agent by watering things down. The fact that Wanderlei Silva was on them doesn't mean he was on anything else - but with just about a month to go until his fight with Sonnen, he should have been well aware of what he could and couldn't put in his body. Furthermore, there's a whole hell of a lot of irony in the fact that had Silva not entered into a physical confrontation with Sonnen on the TUF Brazil set, he wouldn't have broken his wrist in the first place. Silva's lawyer did not dispute anything the commission had to say at the hearing in regards to the timeline of events surrounding the drug test dodge, which saw Silva duck out the back door of his gym. In essence, he's putting himself at the mercy of the NSAC, who will hand down punishment at a later date. Karma's a you-know-what, as Silva has now learned.
Primarily covering the sport of MMA from Ontario, Canada, Jay Anderson has been writing for various publications covering sports, technology, and pop culture since 2001. Jay holds an Honours Bachelor of Arts degree in English from the University of Guelph, and a Certificate in Leadership Skills from Humber College.
