Silva on NAC's handling of Jones: 'Instead of regulating it, you are damaging the sport'
Former PRIDE Middleweight champion Wanderlei Silva is the latest MMA star to weigh in on the developing Jon Jones situation, and the "Axe Murderer" is firmly in the UFC Light Heavyweight kingpin's corner.
MMAFighting.com's Shaun Al-Shatti provides a transcript of Silva's thoughts about the Nevada Athletic Commission's (NAC) handling of Jones' failed drug test.
Let's analyze what happened to Jon Jones. (The NAC is) saying that test shouldn't have been done out of competition and that it was an accident. So they went to test him and accidentally tested for cocaine. But now Jon Jones' champion image is damaged. So what's the commission going to do about this? They go, 'ah, we don't know, we'll see what's going to happen.' Are there laws or are there no laws? Sometimes there are laws and sometimes there are none? There are no protocols to be followed? Where are the laws? Who voted for them? Who implements them? You are lost, you don't know what you are doing.
This sport has to be regulated. The way that it's going can't continue. This commission is a mess. They don't know what they are (doing). You can punish or not? There's no set punishment, there's no set testing system. You guys have to be professionals, you ask for fighters to be professionals when you are not. How can you want to put people on trial without laws? Without laws that apply equally to all? Everybody knows the UFC is a business. They put on fights to make money, and in those regards they're not wrong. But the entity that implements the laws for the athletes, the entity that punishes athletes and controls their lives yet doesn't know what they're doing, just can't be. It's a commission that doesn't follow protocols or laws. So you better clean up this mess.
Instead of regulating it, you are damaging the sport.
Jones tested positive for cocaine metabolites prior to his matchup with Daniel Cormier at UFC 182, and has since checked himself into a drug treatment facility.