Lawyer: NAC can’t stop Wanderlei Silva from fighting anywhere

Wanderlei Silva is expected to appear before the Nevada Athletic Commission once again later this month, and his lawyer is confident that he shouldn’t have any trouble getting his issues cleared up.

It all started when Silva ran away from a member of the commission earlier this year, declining to take a random drug test in his gym in Las Vegas. The former PRIDE champion was removed from a light heavyweight bout against Chael Sonnen scheduled for UFC 175, and his situation is still confusing.

According to Silva’s lawyer, though, the commission has no authority to punish him. Ross Goodman told Ariel Helwani on Monday’s edition of The MMA Hour that NAC’s statute clearly says they can only test fighters who are licensed before them, and this is going to be Silva’s defense before the NAC.

"We’re looking forward to having that hearing, and looking forward to making those arguments in a public form. And hopefully, we can prevail to common sense with respect to the commissioners," Goodman said. "It can’t be more black and white. Everybody understands that you have to consent, you have to be a licensee before anybody can take any sort of action against you.

"I think everybody understands the fact that you can’t discipline somebody who is not licensed before you. It’s just as plain as that," he continued. "The actual complaint is that Wanderlei violated their drug policy, and if you look at the statute, you look at the section that they’re trying to discipline Wanderlei under a clear state that you have to be a licensee."

The commission may argue that it was just a formality that Silva would have a license since the UFC was already advertising the Sonnen fight for July 5 in Las Vegas. Goodman disagrees.

"It makes all the difference in the world. It expressly says you have to be a licensee. This is plain as simple as that," he said. "(The commission) takes one section out of context when says ‘a person.’ Before I even explain that, if they valid what he’s saying, the commission would have the authority to discipline anybody that’s a person. That is absurd. That’s unreasonable.

"If you look at the statute that they took it from, the statute is a licensee statute. You have to read everything in context. There’s no statute which talks about that they can discipline somebody because they are person.

"Unlike Chael or other people, (Silva) had not signed a bout agreement, he wasn’t under contract, and he wasn’t a licensee. You can’t go have somebody to submit to a test because they’re potentially going to a fight on a feature card."

Goodman admits that running from a random drug test and admitting to taking banned substances, a diuretic, "doesn’t make it any better," but defends that it can’t prevent Silva from being licensed by any other commission outside of Nevada, and can’t be a reason to punish the MMA veteran.

"It doesn’t make it any better, but he was taking it out of competition, not licensed, trying to reduce inflammation," he said. "If you look at WADA’s prohibited list, it talks about prohibited substances out of competition and in competition. But even somebody like WADA requires those people to be licensed, or a member of the organization. So the same rule would apply here. Wanderlei should have been a licensee before the commission to try to submit him for a test.

"I think it caught everybody off guard because a commission doesn’t do random tests on people who aren’t licensed before them," Goodman said of why Silva ran from the drug test. "They do random test on people who are licensed before the commission. In fact, as you know, you can look at their website and you can look at their formal policy on drug testing.

"They published on their website directly to licensees. It doesn’t say non-licensees. So, if you’re going to randomly test somebody, that presumes that that person is licensed before the commission. You can show up at anytime you want. But you can’t show up, and you don’t have the authority, which is really what the issue is… (Wanderlei) was shocked, he was caught off guard with somebody showing up even thought he didn’t sign a bout agreement with the UFC yet at that point, and he wasn’t a licensee.

"So, instead of trying to accuse Wanderlei, I think the issue should be how come the commission is pursuing something which is, in its state, clearly wrong. Taking action against someone who isn’t licensed before them. What they should do it take this as a learning lesson and go ahead and make feature agreements, or amendment rules, to try prevent that from happening."

If the commission doesn’t accept Goodman’s motion to dismiss at the upcoming hearing, he will look for an "unbiased judge" to reverse the NAC’s decision.

"It’s a shame that it needs to go that far," he said. "This is a very simple issue, they should just learn from it and not go forward with the disciplinary complain because they don’t have jurisdiction."

Goodman expects this issue to be solved in two or three months if they have to appeal against NAC’s decision in a different court, but believes he would be clear to fight anywhere else.

"He’s never been denied a license," he said. "So if he fights in any other jurisdiction and he submits a license, it’s not like that commission is going to deny it because he hasn’t been denied before. What they’re probably gonna do is having him take a test, and if he tests negative, then it should be no obstacle preventing that commission from giving him a license."