Sherdog’s Top 10: MMA Scandals

7. Wanderlei Silva Flees the NAC

By the time he was supposed to go toe-to-toe with rival Chael Sonnen at UFC 175, Silva was well past his prime. Still, the fans loved him. His entertaining style had delighted many MMA observers, even as many insiders suspected the Brazilian might have been on the juice during his remarkable run in Pride Fighting Championships. Silva had scored vicious knockouts against a number of contemporaries, including Quinton Jackson and Kazushi Sakuraba, but when he returned to the UFC following Zuffa’s purchase of Pride, he was nowhere near the killing machine he was in Japan.

Despite all the rumors, Silva had never failed a drug test and kept his reputation largely intact. That was until a representative from the Nevada Athletic Commission showed up at his Las Vegas gym to collect a random pre-fight urine sample. Silva was said to have escaped out the back door and fled the scene, avoiding the collection process altogether. He denied the incident, but witnesses and NAC testimony claimed otherwise. Silva was fined $70,000 and received a lifetime ban from the NAC, which later reduced the penalty to three years. The bout with Sonnen never came to fruition.

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