Nick Diaz settlement talks suggest commission went too far with suspension

It was a bombshell announcement, if only because it was so completely unexpected. Nick Diaz tweeted Tuesday that his attorneys were in settlement talks with the Nevada Athletic Commission.

Several hours later, the commission issued a terse news release confirming the talks.

Diaz was given one of the most sensationally bad penalties in the history of sports jurisprudence in September when Nevada suspended him for five years and fined him $165,000 for a drug violation it couldn’t come close to proving.

Nevada alleged that Diaz failed a marijuana test administered to him after his bout with Anderson Silva at UFC 183 in January. Though it failed to prove it – there were two tests that appeared to exonerate Diaz that Nevada chose to ignore – it penalized him anyway.

It was an egregious, outrageous abuse of power and a patently absurd penalty. It was far worse than the ludicrous $900,000 fine and nine-month suspension the commission originally gave boxer Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. in 2013, and there was no question that time whether the state had proven its allegation.

The troubling news in all of this is that the commission immediately entered into settlement talks with Diaz’s attorneys, which would indicate that it knew it had overreached its authority.

This particular version of the Nevada commission – then-chairman Francisco Aguilar and members Pat Lundvall, Skip Avansino and Anthony Marnell – has vigorously pursued tougher enforcement of performance enhancing drug rules and tougher penalties for failures, and is to be commended for it.

That is clearly warranted in a sport in which the competitors are being punched and kicked in the head.

Forgetting the issue of whether marijuana should be on the banned list, however, there is little dispute that the penalty handed to Diaz was ridiculously harsh.

UFC superstar Ronda Rousey made a perfect analogy when she was asked about it at a media day gathering Tuesday in her Glendale, Calif., gym. No matter if it’s a first offense or a third, as in Diaz’s case, the punishment must fit the crime.

“This reminds me of when you get a parking ticket, and you don’t pay for it, and then you got another parking ticket and you don’t pay for it, but no matter how many parking tickets you get and no matter how long you don’t pay for them, you never deserve life in prison,” Rousey said. “ … You could do all of the worst things that could ever be associated with parking tickets, but at the end of the day, it’s a parking ticket. You don’t deserve life in jail for getting one.”

If the commissioners actually believed they were doing justice that day, the penalty would still be absurd, but at least one could understand their actions.

But the fact that they’re so willing to jump into settlement talks before an appeal has even been filed says that they knew from the start this was an overreach.

On Thursday, this same commission suspended Rousimar Palhares for two years and fined him $40,000 for holding a submission too long during a World Series of Fighting match in Las Vegas with Jake Shields.

Palhares has a long history of dirty play and was cut by the UFC for this same tactic. Yet, Nevada fined him less than a quarter of what it fined Diaz, and gave him a far shorter suspension.

It was undoubtedly influenced by a judge ruling that the lifetime ban of Wanderlei Silva was arbitrary and capricious. It was also impacted by the overwhelming negative reaction to the Diaz penalty.

Nevada Gov. Brian Sandoval needs to take a very close look at this situation. Boxing and MMA are very important to the state for the tourist money they attract, and the commission’s actions are turning it into a laughingstock. That makes it more likely that the big fights, the ones that make the big Strip resorts lots of money, will begin to wind up in other jurisdictions.

Sandoval should carefully consider whether to ask for the resignations of those four who felt a five-year ban for a fighter who allegedly smoked marijuana was appropriate. Remember, the commission didn’t by any stretch prove that Diaz had it in his system. The governor must also do a better job of vetting potential appointees in the future, because this commission is critical in a number of ways.

Since Diaz has undoubtedly incurred exceptionally large and unexpected expenses while defending himself against this travesty of justice, the settlement should include a financial component in which the commission attempts to make Diaz whole.

Fighters who violate the rules, particularly ones that involve safety, should face significant penalties.

No one would have complained a bit had Palhares been suspended for five years and/or been fined $165,000. Through his disregard for the rules, Palhares could have seriously injured Shields by refusing to release the submission promptly when Shields tapped.

A petition was started on the White House’s web site after Diaz’s penalty and got more than the required 100,000 signatures to force a review.

If there was a similar petition started to examine the Palhares penalty, it might be lucky to get 10 signatures. Might.

Of course, the No. 1 thing the commission needs to do after correcting this Diaz situation is to examine its marijuana policy.

It shouldn’t even be tested for, but if the World Anti-Doping Agency keeps it as a banned substance in competition, Nevada is likely to do the same.

If it chooses to keep testing fighters for marijuana, Nevada should change the penalty structure and eliminate any suspension for those caught with it in their systems during a fight. Increase the fine for each violation and it will be a fair and equitable solution.

As it stands now, as Rousey said, fighters who smoke marijuana can wind up getting a life sentence for the equivalent of a parking ticket.

That hardly serves the interests of justice.