Dana White on Wanderlei Silva Running From Drug Test: “He’d Have Been Better Off Testing Positive”

Former Pride champion and current UFC fighter Wanderlei Silva would like the Nevada Athletic Commission to forget all about him skipping out on a random drug test on May 24, but the commission has made it clear that the 38-year-old will not go unpunished.

“The outcome of this is not going to be good,” said UFC president Dana White about Silva’s situation while in Sacramento for UFC 177. “You don’t run. The random drug test, they’re random… They’re gonna show up whenever they want to show up. You cannot run from them.”

When a commission representative arrived unannounced at Silva’s gym to randomly drug test him prior to his scheduled UFC 175 bout against Chael Sonnen, Silva literally slipped out the backdoor to avoid having to submit positive samples.

The Brazilian fighting icon admitted to willfully fleeing from the test during an information gathering hearing in June and said he did so because he was taking a diuretic at the time. Use of diuretics is banned under the regulatory body’s guidelines.

Silva was not licensed to fight in Nevada at the time and recently filed a motion to dismiss any disciplinary hearing on the grounds that since he was not licensed in the state, the commission had no legal authority to punish him for refusing to take the test.

“That’s a complete (expletive) technicality that … I just can’t see that happening,” said White. “He was wrong.”

The Nevada Attorney General’s Office filed a motion of its own to have Silva’s request for dismissal denied.

SEE ALSO: Nevada AG Urges Athletic Commission to Pursue Wanderlei Silva Discipline

“Wanderlei has always been great. I like Wanderlei, but there is nothing worse than running from a random drug test. He’d have been better off testing positive, if that were the case, than running from a drug test,” said the UFC president.

“If he can slip away from the commission from some kind of technicality… I just don’t see it happening,” said White about Silva’s claim that the commission lacks the jurisdiction to punish him.

Silva’s Motion to Dismiss will be addressed at the commission’s Sept. 23 meeting in Las Vegas. If Silva’s request for dismissal is denied, disciplinary action against the Brazilian will be levied at that meeting.