From: Keith Kizer
Date: Thu, Feb 9, 2012 at 12:16 PM
Subject: UFC 143
Thank you for the many email and phone calls. I am still waiting for all the steroid and drug test results to come back. We did have at least one positive test. I will send out an email later today on that matter.

Keith Kizer
Executive Director
Nevada Athletic Commission

--

When Carlos Condit beat Nick Diaz by unanimous decision, the ensuing controversy was MMA's little equivalent of Hagler vs. Leonard.

Nick Diaz was so frustrated with the decision that he retired on the spot. Carlos Condit's camp announced that they saw no advantage in and had no interest in a rematch.

However, MMA is better than boxing, and so rather than let the controversy stew for decades as has Hagler Leonard, a rematch was put together, for big money, with the winner taking the UFC Interim  Welterweight title, and presumably facing GSP for the UFC Welterweight title thereafter.

The official announcement was supposed to be Friday. Flights were booked to Vegas. Then something happened.

Diaz's manager and trainer Cesar Gracie gave a brief statement to ESPN.

“Yeah, I said that (there will be no rematch)" Said Gracie. "But that's all I can say. I can't say anything else. I can't do anything. Quote that if you want to. There is not going to be a rematch. Other than that, that's all I can say.”

Gracie followed up on Twitter.

CesarGracieBJJ Cesar Gracie
@danawhite Nick would rematch in a heartbeat. No extra money needed. He is a true fighter and fights for his team and you fans.

A cloud of controversy seems to follow Diaz in this sport, and speculation erupted as to why Diaz was not fighting. The most obvious reason for a manager to threaten to pull out of a money-making rematch is money - a tactic to leverage more money from the fight.

But that theory is flatly contradicted by Cesar's tweet to White.

In the case of Nick Diaz, it has not escaped the hardcore fanbase's attention that a possible, even probable reason he can't fight is because he tested positive for marijuana, again. In 2007 when Diaz failed a recreational drug test administered by the Nevada State Athletic Comission, he was suspended for six months, fined $3,000, and a spectacular defeat of Takanori Gomi was declared a No Contest. Rumors that it has happened again are on virtually every message board in the space. So the question is, where there's smoke, is there smoke?

Diaz has not made a secret of his use of marijuana, which is decriminalized in California.

"I'm more consistent about everything being a cannabis user," Diaz said in a 2009 interview with The LA Times. "I'm happy to get loaded, hear some good music . . . I remain consistent ... I can pass a drug test in eight days with herbal cleansers. I drink 10 pounds of water and sweat out 10 pounds of water every day. I'll be fine."

With Kizer reporting that there was a positive drug test at UFC 143, the most obvious reason for Nick Diaz' manager saying he is out for the rest of the year without offering an explanation is a positive test for marijuana.

Marijuana seems an unlikely aid to performance in a fight sport. Great for watching reruns of Mr. Roger's Neighborhood, but for trying to make another man tap, nap, or snap in a cage, not so much.

However, Nevada State Athletic Commission executive officer Keith Kizer explained the reasoning in 2009. The issue is not whether mairijuana is legal or not, or whether recreational use is positive or negative. The issue is whether you should be high as a kite when you fight.

"Obviously marijuana and alcohol can change your reflexes, slow them down, so you can get injured," said Kizer. "Or it could numb the pain so you don’t realize you’re hurt. That’s why we don’t let fighters, for example, to have cortisone shots into their back or into their hand before they fight because they can not realize they’re hurt and they keep fighting and the next thing you know they’re permanently damaged."

Related MMA gear from the UG Store

Metal Mulisha Nate Diaz 209 Shirt Only $23.99

Century Official UFC Fight Gloves Only $59.99

tags-: UFC   Nick Diaz (detail)  Carlos Condit (detail)