The shuffling deck of UFC 137 squashed the Nevada State Athletic Commission's plans for out-of-competition testing of the headliners.
However, one competitor did not and could not escape a pre-fight drug test: Nick Diaz. And as it turned out, he took headliner status.
Thankfully, the NSAC received notice on Wednesday that Diaz passed a test for drugs of abuse and is cleared to fight, NSAC executive director Keith Kizer told MMAjunkie.com (
www.mmajunkie.com).
Diaz was not tested for performance-enhancing drugs.
The NSAC requires all potential licensees who have failed a previous drug test in the state to test clean before they can again be licensed, Kizer said.
Diaz tested off-the-charts positive for marijuana following his spectacular victory over Takanori Gomi at PRIDE 33. As a result, the bout's result was changed to a no-contest, and he was suspended for six months and fined $3,000. More than a year later, he was to be tested in advance of his fight against Eddie Alvarez at "EliteXC: Night of Champions," but the event, which was scheduled to take place in Reno, Nev., was canceled.
After budget cuts eliminated out-of-competition testing, the NSAC reinstated the testing program in June after a change to the commission's funding statutes that rerouted some of the fees generated from live events to the program.
Kizer said this week's drug-test result on Diaz was also forwarded to the California State Athletic Commission, which in 2009 declined to license the fighter for a bout in Strikeforce against Jay Hieron when he no-showed a pre-fight drug test. Diaz later tested clean for three fights under the Strikeforce banner in California.
On Saturday, the former Strikeforce welterweight champ takes on B.J. Penn in the main event of UFC 137, which takes place at the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas. The bout originally was scheduled as the pay-per-view event's co-headliner before welterweight champ Georges St-Pierre was forced to withdraw from a headliner opposite Carlos Condit due to a knee injury.
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