In big MMA news this past week, UFC fighter Nick Diaz was suspended for five years for failing a drug test around his January of 2015 fight with Anderson Silva. The commission issuing the suspension treated him as a repeat offender and therefore issued the harshest suspension seen in Mixed Martial Arts.
Immediately, the outrage from the common fans and from the Diaz camp was loud and sustained, but it is not clear what the next step is in the process for Diaz. At 32 years old, a five-year suspension effectively puts an end to him fighting in his prime.
[related_post_one]
Much is being made in comparison to opponent Silva’s suspension, which was for PEDs around the same fight and stands at two years. UFC President Dana White was succinct in saying that his opinion didn’t matter, and he didn’t say much after that, but the smirk on his face told you most of what you need to know.
The suspension of Nick Diaz is a grandstand act by the commission to mask the real issue, and that is that as an independent organism, the commissions are basically powerless to stop and police drug use. The first scapegoat of this era’s “tough on drugs” stance has been found and it is Diaz.
[related_post_two]
Diaz, at times, is his own worse enemy, and he does appear to have at least a minor dependence on marijuana, but former light heavyweight champion Jon Jones tested positive for cocaine and is still under no official suspension.
The positive test by Jones came independent of his arrest for hit and run, and all that was technically outside of competition and in New Mexico, a state without a boxing commission with the resources of Nevada or California. In the case of Jones, who almost everyone believes to be a much more serious case than Diaz, there is no commission who can even step up and claim jurisdiction.
What this brings to light is the ineptness of the commissions running independently at the state level in the USA. Technically, Nick Diaz vs Ben Askren would be a fantastic fight, and why would ONE FC who operates in Asia even care about what the US commissions have in terms of a suspension? The US commissions could issue bans to everyone in sight, but that just heightens the feeling that they are becoming obsolete in a modern world and that a new system of oversight and regulation is needed.
