Wand (photo) was PRIDE champion. Photo: Reproduction/YouTube
Wanderlei Silva is no longer banned for life by the Nevada Athletic Commission. This Wednesday (17), the North American entity reviewed the punishment given to the Brazilian and determined that the former PRIDE champion should stay away from fights until May 2017.
Wanderlei was punished in 2014 after refusing to take a surprise anti-doping test before his fight against Chael Sonnen, still for the UFC. In a hearing held in the same year, the Brazilian received an unprecedented punishment that determined that he would never fight again under the supervision of the Nevada Commission.
However, Wanderlei and his lawyers appealed and were entitled to a new trial. The session, held in Las Vegas (USA), featured moments of tension between the Brazilian's lawyer and the commissioners, who even stated that the line of defense adopted by the fighter was “an insult”.
In the end, there was disagreement among the members of the Commission, who differed between punishing Wanderlei for two, three or four years. In the end, the final punishment was 36 months, retroactive to May 2014, when the Curitiba native committed the infraction. Like this. Wanderlei will be able to fight again in Nevada in June 2017.
The punishment is only valid in territory inspected by the Nevada Athletic Commission, which includes Las Vegas. However, other North American commissions normally respect the punishments applied on site. However, Wanderlei, recently rumored in Rizin, is technically free to return to fight in Japan, where the United States commissions do not have jurisdiction.
[vox id=”25890″]
