Keith Kizer: Thiago Silva may be out of the UFC longer than a year

UFC 125 should have been a time of celebration for Thiago Silva.

Instead, he found himself mired in controversy after his initial pre-fight urine test was found to be "inconsistent with that of a human."  Silva initially denied the allegations, trying to save face, but it was eventually confirmed when the second sample also failed to pass.

The Nevada State Athletic Commission (NSAC) made an example of Silva by dropping the hammer with a full year revocation of his fighter license as well as a $33,750 fine.

And this isn't the first time a fighter has tried to get by the NSAC with fake urine.

Longtime mixed martial arts veteran Kevin "The Monster" Randleman famously tried the same maneuver for his Pride 32 fight in 2006 and he was caught as well.

NSAC Executive Director Keith Kizer recently discussed with Pro MMA Radio exactly how Silva snuck by the initial inspection process and why he may be out of action for longer than a year.

"With the Randleman situation, he was wearing biker shorts and he used the "whizzinator" as they call it. With Thiago, he turned towards the toilet and he had a vial of fake urine in his underwear. As he turned away he was able to palm the fake urine, turn, the inspector didn't get a clean look, and he was able to pour the vial into the cup."

"The inspector needs to be in front of the fighter when he urinates. It's an easy fix. It should have been there already. It was our newest inspector on the job. The older inspectors already knew to stand in front of them."

"When I approached the inspector and told him we had an issue with Thiago's urine, right off the bat he said, 'Keith, you know what? On that situation I was behind him when it happened.' After he saw what the 'A' sample showed, he was very disappointed in himself as he should be. He's well aware of the fact that with every fighter, you need to be in front. It'll make it easier in the future to catch them."

"The best scenario is to discourage fighters from even trying to cheat the test. The second best is to catch them in the act with the inspector and the lab test is more of the last line of defense. Synthetic urine cannot pass a steroid test. Our first goal is deterrence. Deter them from using synthetic substances in the first place."

Silva was fined 25-percent of his fight purse as well as $20,000 of his win bonus. Some may feel that Silva being allowed to keep any of his win bonus is unfair, considering he cheated and while Kizer agreed, he also explained why Silva was allowed to keep some of it..

"For the most part, about 80-percent of the cases where a fighter fails the test, they usually lose their entire win bonus. It's rare cases though because usually the guy that failed the test is the one that lost the fight. He's taking something illegal because he needs it to have a chance. Most of the time it's not enough. Regardless, it's still unfair, it's still cheating and it still harms your body."

"I think what happened here was twofold. In the Randleman case, he lost the fight. He was in that group where they still weren't good enough. His fine back in '07 was 1/8 of his purse. He had $40,000 in show money and he got zero win since he lost the fight and they took away $5000 of it."

"We've ramped it up since then to add to the deterrence. To me, I like it more when the commission takes away the whole win bonus. The win was changed to a 'no contest' as well. Mr. Silva did come clean, albeit belatedly. We want to encourage people to come clean. Obviously first of all we don't want people do it but if they do do it, we want you to admit it. We don't want guys to come out and say 'I don't know how these steroids got in my system' if you do [get caught]."

"He was actually very forthcoming at the hearing. Even if some guys admit that they've done it, their stories don't quite add up. This was definitely a situation where everything added up that he said. It doesn't excuse it but I think because of that maybe they wanted to send a message to other fighters."

Kizer also clarified how long Silva is suspended, explaining that he could be out longer than fight fans and media initially expected.

"I heard some news sites saying it's a one year suspension. That's not the case. On a normal one year suspension, as long as you test clean, you're back and you can fight again. We revoked [his fighter license]. On top of the PEDs(Performance Enhancing Drugs), he committed this fraudulent act..  You have to wait at least a year before you can apply again and once he applies again, everything is still on the table."

"The commissioner may or may not say yes."

For more on Keith Kizer's comments on Thiago Silva, check out the replay of MMAmania.com's exclusive presentation of Pro MMA Radio by clicking here.