Welcome everyone to the first Nevada Athletic Commission train wreck meeting of 2016! Last year provided some all-time classics, including Anderson Silva's Thai sex pills, amazing choice of music for said hearing, the super ban of Nick Diaz for 5 years due to another failed marijuana test, and just general awkwardness that comes with even non-MMA stuff during NAC hearings.
We get to start off this year with a bang. Wanderlei Silva and Nick Diaz are both on today's agenda list:
1. Re‐hearing of disciplinary complaint and proposed consent order against mixed martial artist Wanderlei Silva, for possible action.
2. Hearing on motion for reconsideration and proposed settlement agreement against mixed martial artist Nick Diaz, for possible action.
Wanderlei's hearing will be centered around "a consent order -- a voluntary agreement between two parties without an admission of guilt," that has twice been pushed back since November. You may remember the whole drug testing fiasco from 2014, which involved him running away from a random NAC drug test before his fight with Chael Sonnen. Silva was handed a lifetime ban by the NAC, but a Nevada district court judge overturned that ruling.
There have been talks that Diaz's 5 year ban could be reduced to 18 months, still retroactive to the date of the Anderson Silva fight, which would make him eligible to compete again this year. Will this be the day that they sort of #FreeNickDiaz?
The meeting is scheduled to last 4 hours (12 PM ET/9 AM PT) and there are some other items on the list, mostly to do with venue approval, that could make this a lengthy wait to get to what MMA fans are most interested in.
You can watch the live stream by clicking this link, but that's only if you're a Fight Pass subscriber. For a live-tweet of the proceedings, follow Michael Hutchinson on the Bloody Elbow Twitter account.