Nick Diaz and the NSAC: Both in the Wrong

I like to look at things from as fair and balanced a perspective as possible, this means looking at both sides of any given situation and seeing the merits to each side whether I personally agree with them or not. Forming a personal opinion or emotional response is secondary to objective analysis and reasoned consideration to me, especially when I’m sitting down to write something as I’ve found my personal writing comes across much better when I’m able to consider all sides of an argument and understand the counterpoints. At times when writing about MMA that’s difficult, sometimes my emotional response is strong and needs to abate and sometimes it’s an issue of adequate information being provided and processed properly. I’m very fortunate that in the case of Nick Diaz the majority of the information seems to be readily available and that my emotions play an extremely minimal part in my reaction. Seeing as Jeff Harris and Lorenzo Vasquez have both talked about the extremes, Harris talking about why the suspension of Diaz was justified and Vasquez calling out the Nevada State Athletic Commission for their laundry list of issues, I figured I’ll take a stab at it as well.

I care about Nick Diaz when he steps into a cage and stop caring when he steps out of it, as I do with something on the order of 95% of the current UFC roster. So when the Nevada State Athletic Commission (NSAC) suspended him for five years and fined him over one hundred and fifty thousand earlier this week I can honestly say I didn’t have much of a strong reaction while the MMA section of the internet exploded. In the wake of Diaz’s suspension a lot of talking points have come up, some of which are valid and some of which are not.

Let’s start by looking at Nick Diaz, since really this whole thing begins and ends with him. I have zero sympathy of Diaz in this situation. This is his third failed drug test, more on the testing issues coming up, and really if he wanted to avoid situations like this it’s relatively easy to do so. Diaz has constantly put himself in situations like this one, flagrantly ignoring rules and requests from both athletic commissions and employers all the while complaining that he’s not paid enough and expressing his dislike for fighting. Personally speaking I got off of the Diaz merry-go-round after he lost to Carlos Condit. For those who don’t know, or just need a refresher, following a unanimous decision loss to Condit Diaz retired in the cage then failed his post fight drug test for marijuana. Does that sequence sound familiar? It should as following a lopsided loss to Georges St-Pierre for the welterweight title Diaz again retired in the cage in March of 2013, he sat out for over a year then returned to take on Anderson Silva lost another unanimous decision in one of the most bizarre fights of the year then again announced he was unlikely to compete again then failed a drug test. This is simply the pattern that Nick Diaz is living his professional life in right now, and I have no sympathy for him refusing to acknowledge the negative consequences of his choices and repeating them expecting different outcomes.

All of Diaz’s failed drug tests have been for marijuana, and unfortunately any discussion of him and his drug use seems to deteriorate into a debate about that particular drug. Let me clear about this, the legalization of marijuana is completely and utterly irrelevant to this discussion and wont be brought up here. The issue at hand is what substances a fighter can or cannot have in their system for in competition testing. The newly adopted guidelines for drug testing don’t test for marijuana out of competition (i.e. not immediately before or after a fight) but it remains on the banned list for in competition. The list for substances not allowed in competition is markedly different from out of competition and includes quite a few items that will not enhance performance but hinder it. Sleep aides, muscle relaxants, anxiety medication, taking these before a fight wont help you win but all of those could certainly hurt performance. Those types of substances, among others, can slow reflexes both physically and mentally and leave a fighter performing at a serious deficit and leave them vulnerable to damage. Fighters are not permitted to have those types of substances because it is unsafe and opens up the commission and the promotion to all kinds of legal issues with respect to liability. Even if marijuana were legalized it would likely still be on the banned substances for in competition testing.

A somewhat related theme with respect to Diaz’s suspension was “five years for weed?!”. I believe this is an issue of not seeing the forest for the trees. The sentence in this case has less to do with the substance and more to do with the instance. This is Diaz’s third failed drug test, two of which have occurred in his last three fights, and the number of failed tests had much more to do with his sentence than the fact that his drug of choice can’t realistically be categorized as “performance enhancing”. If this were a fighter’s third failed drug test with steroids being the substance in question I don’t think anyone would be up in arms over this, in fact we’d likely be calling for a lifetime ban of the offender. Now don’t get me wrong, marijuana and steroids are very different animals but any third time offender is going to be facing harsher penalties than a first time offender and Nick Diaz has failed three drug tests and flat out avoided another during his time in Strikeforce. When Nick Diaz had to face down his punishment for this failed test it wasn’t taken in a vacuum, the totality of his past failures and behaviors was taken into consideration and when you consider all of that a five year suspension isn’t nearly as unreasonable. Now do I personally think the punishment might be a little harsh, especially considering some of the possible testing issue? Yes, but when I consider all of the issues Diaz has had up to this point I can certainly understand it.

Now I wish I could have concluded with that sentiment, but in this instance we also have to consider the Nevada State Athletic Commission and the issues this has brought to light as it pertains to that organization. The NSAC is, to put it kindly, a circus. If you don’t believe me simply look up the hearing they had with Anderson Silva, or the most recent one with Nick Diaz. They’re a better source of comedy than almost anything on broadcast television. In the case of Diaz he, via his attorney, presented solid evidence to generate doubt as to the validity of the failed drug test. For the record Diaz was given three tests prior to the Silva bout and only one of those, taken to a lab not sanctioned by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), tested above the threshold for marijuana metabolites. For some reason this evidence carried no apparent weight with the commission.

The NSAC has a history of uneven punishments and a propensity to succumb to flattery. Vitor Belfort and Chael Sonnen both have histories of failed steroid tests and issues related to testosterone replacement therapy, Sonnen’s failed test prior to a scheduled fight with Vitor Belfort contained human growth hormone, erythropoietin, anastrozole, and human chorionic gonadotropin, yet despite that impressive list of banned substances Sonnen received just a two year suspension despite that being his second failed drug test for steroids and a failed test from Belfort in February of 2014 carried no fine or suspension at all. When it was announced that the NSAC would be adopting a new policy on drug tests early this year with harsher penalties and mandatory sentences one of my personal hopes was that this would reduce or remove the inconsistencies, yet here we are after the implementation of those rules and already we’re in an odd situation with respect to the punishment of Diaz.

The underlying issue with the NSAC is a lack of accountability. This is a commission without oversight. Every member of the commission is appointed to that position and only leaves it via voluntarily stepping down or by order of the governor with associated proof of some kind of malfeasance or neglect of duty. The commission is notorious for reviewing policies internally, ignoring criticism, and adopting a somewhat unspoken policy of accepting kowtowing in lieu of genuine remorse or evidence. These issues stem from the NSAC basically being an independent oligarchy, free to exist within itself without interference from the outside world. They are free to react emotionally, as the commissioner did to the general attitude of Nick Diaz, without too much fear of judicial review or some form of sanction from above. They are held accountable to no one, and Thomas Hobbes has been proven right time and again about what happens to people free of the Leviathan.

The old adage about two wrongs not making a right seems applicable here. Nick Diaz made poor choices, he signed to fight without marijuana in his system yet placed himself in a position to fail that qualification. All three of Diaz’s tests showed marijuana metabolites, two were below the threshold for a failed test, and really he should have known better. Marijuana testing is hardly an elegant or sophisticated process rife with the possibility for the drug to remain detectable for weeks after indulging in it, yet if Diaz wanted to avoid all of this he could have. Everyone knows the days for in competition testing, if he stopped smoking six weeks out and avoided being around others as they were smoking marijuana as well during that time frame then we’re unlikely to be in the current situation. Then the NSAC behaved like a punch of petulant teenagers when Diaz presented a defense rather than metaphorically kissing the ring and begging for absolution.

Nick Diaz should absolutely be held accountable for his choices, one would just hope those responsible for administering the consequences weren’t so wildly inconsistent.