Diaz’ attorneys promise legal action

The combat sports of boxing and mixed martial arts are so potentially dangerous that government regulation is prudent. Use of performance enhancing drugs for example can push the level of danger unacceptably high. Rules violations can do the same. Mike Tyson infamously bit off Evander Holyfield’s ear.

Tyson was suspended for a year.

The Nevada Athletic Commission has now handed down the toughest punishment in the history of MMA – a five-year suspension and $165,000 fine. It was for failing a prohibition against marijuana on three occasions. The reaction was very nearly universal, and negative.

Diaz was tested three time on the night of UFC 183. The first and third of the tests were analyzed by a WADA-accredited lab. The middle test was analyzed by a workplace drug testing lab. It was the middle test that Diaz failed – he in fact passed two WADA tests, one taken shortly before the failed test, and one taken shortly afterwards.

However, the commission said Diaz falsely answered “No” on a standard questionaire that surveyed drug use in the previous two weeks. Further, Diaz failed tests for the demon weed at UFC 143 and PRIDE 33. In sum, the commission argued that Diaz’s behavior constitutes “disrespect” towards the NAC.

Ironically, ruining people’s lives over “disrespect” is precisely the kind of anti-social behavior that Diaz has risen above in his hometown of Stockton, Calif. Now Diaz’s legal team vows to take action, beginning with an application for a judicial review from a higher court.

This isn’t fair – this is a kangaroo court, said attorney Lucas K. Middlebrook to Steven Marrocco and John Morgan for MMAjunkie. You heard the commission’s decision wasn’t based on the facts; it wasn’t based on the evidence.

One commissioner said, ‘Your attorneys were very persuasive. But you don’t respect us, so here’s a five-year ban and a ton of money that we’re going to take back.’

They should have dismissed the complaint. It was abuse of discretion, through and through.

We’re confident that (the courts) will see the errors of the commission’s ways. You really have a bigger problem here. There are no standard protocols that these athletes are tested for drugs, which every athlete that’s subject to the commission should be extremely worried about that, because you’re going to get inconsistent results.

Any drug testing program in this country has standards of protocol. Go online and try to find the commission’s protocol’s. There are none. And when they do use a WADA-accredited lab, they don’t want to rely on that. So it’s very scary that there’s no review process for these athletes, that there’s no consistent protocol, and that they can be fined and lose their livelihood without any due process of law.

Diaz, 32, will be eligible to fight again on Feb. 1, 2020. Barring successful legal action, his career is effectively over.

For marijuana use.