Report: Anderson Silva would not have been allowed to fight Nick Diaz at UFC 183 if NSAC received drug test results sooner

I guess this could have been worse?

Nevada State Athletic Commission (NSAC) tested Anderson Silva for banned substances on Jan. 9, 2015, which was more than three weeks out from his UFC 183 main event match against Nick Diaz on Jan. 31, 2015.

However, according to Yahoo!Sports.com, NSAC did not receive the results from those out-of-competition tests until yesterday (Feb. 2, 2015), several days after Silva scored a unanimous decision win over Diaz inside MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas (watch video highlights here).

Silva, the tests revealed, was caught taking two anabolic steroids and perhaps other performance-enhancing drugs (news is still trickling in). That's clearly an unfair advantage in a cage fight, one that never would have happened had NSAC received the results sooner from Sports Medicine Research & Testing Laboratory (SMARTL) in Salt Lake City, Utah.

Yahoo!Sports.com caught up with NSAC chairman Francisco Aguilar:

"I would have had no problem calling the fight once I had this result. Those are not acceptable substances. But at the very least, by doing this out-of-competition test, we found this. We wouldn't have known had we not done the out-of-competition test."

It sounds like yet another screw up just weeks after news leaked that NSAC botched a similar out-of-competition drug test for Jon Jones, the Light Heavyweight champion who was doing cocaine several weeks out of his fight against Daniel Cormier at UFC 182.

Jones was allowed to fight because of a nonsensical loophole, while Silva was allowed to compete because NSAC and its lab partners can't set deadlines.

Hey, but the show did go one as planned. And now NSAC stands to make 30 percent of Silva's $800,000 purse ($240,000) and the same cut of Diaz's half-million payday ($150,000) because marijuana was detected in the latter's system immediately after he dropped a five-round unanimous decision "No Contest."

It seems big business, once again, trumps fighter safety in "Sin City."