Wanderelei Silva (pictured) hasn’t won a fight inside the cage in 26 months, but the MMA legend scored a significant victory inside a Nevada courtroom last week.
On Friday, judge Kerry Earley in Nevada district court overturned the lifetime ban and $70,000 fine the Nevada Athletic Commission levied on Silva in September after the former UFC superstar ran from a random drug test. According to the judge, the NAC’s punishment “is indeed arbitrary and not supported by any type of sentencing guidelines, or withing standard norms. The ban and financial penalties “are arbitrary and capricious.”
Silva will now have the opportunity to stand before the NAC again for a re-hearing.