Wanderlei Silva Appears At NSAC Hearing

Wanderlei Silva appeared in front of the Nevada State Athletic Commission committee on Tuesday afternoon to provide information about his failure to comply with a commissioned random drug test back in late May.

Silva, who was set to face Chael Sonnen at UFC 175, evaded the drug tester who sought him out at his gym, and in a statement read by his attorney Tuesday, Silva revealed the reason why.

"Back in February of this year - at Ultimate Fighter Brazil - he injured his wrist. He was prescribed by the UFC doctors, anti-inflammatories," Silva's attorney said. "Early in May (Wanderlei) was x-rayed and it was confirmed that he had fractured his right wrist. ... Mr. Silva, regretfully, at that time began taking diuretics for the sole purpose of minimizing the inflammation (in his wrist) to decrease the water retention."

Before Silva's statement, the NSAC-commissioned drug sample collector spoke about his attempt to perform a drug test on Silva back in May. He said Silva agreed to take the test when he tracked him down at his gym in Las Vegas, but asked to speak to his manager before taking the test. 

As the collector noticed Silva walking toward the back of the gym, he followed the former Pride middleweight champion, but when he got to the back of the gym Silva was nowhere to be found.

Silva said in his statement that he knows he made a mistake by not taking the test.

"He now realizes that he should have submitted to the drug test," Silva's attorney said. "He was surprised, it was the first time in his career that something like this, out of competition where someone showed up at his gym. That doesn't negate or minimize what Mr. Silva did. He's here to apologize to the commission, and he was concerned that the diuretics would show up on the sample."

After the hearing, Silva took to Twitter to comment on the hearing and his statement.

"This story came to an end today! I'm ready to go back to fighting as soon as possible, thank you to everyone for supporting my dear friends," Silva said.

Commission chairman Francisco Aguilar said today's appearance by Silva was to gather information about what transpired the day of the attempted drug test. The commission will move forward with the information gathered and will make a determination at a later date of what the next step will be in this process.

Silva's representative noted that his client has been fighting for over 20 years, amassing 50 fights, and has never failed a drug test.

Additionally at the hearing, Sonnen was temporarily suspended after failing a drug test in May that led to the former middleweight contender's retirement last week. Sonnen plans to appeal and the matter will be addressed at a later date.