NSAC’s Kizer to Silva: If you do that again, you are done in Nevada

It was reported yesterday that Chael Sonnen‘s head trainer, Scott McQuarry was appealing his fighter’s loss to UFC Middleweight Champion Anderson Silva at UFC 148 on several grounds. The Nevada State Athletic Commission’s director, Keith Kizer, said there were no grounds for an appeal, but that does not mean that the Champion is in NSAC’s good graces.

The buildup to UFC 148 was characterized by a bitter rivalry, the likes of which had never been seen in the history of MMA.Sonnen’s trash talking became legendary to the point where some felt that he crossed the line. For his part, Anderson Silva remained quiet about it until the final two weeks. It culminated in Silva throwing a shoulder into Sonnen at last Friday’s weigh-in.

Kizer, who spoke to both fighters on behalf of the commission after Saturday night’s title fight, stated to MMAJunkie.com that he was “very unhappy with Anderson” due to his actions at Friday’s weigh-ins. However, it was Sonnen who convinced him and NSAC chairman Skip Avansino to drop the matter. According to Kizer: “I said look, ‘What’s your view? What’s your level of outrage, so to speak?’ And he was very forgiving I’ve got to give him a lot of credit. He basically said to me that he wasn’t looking for any kind of serious discipline against Anderson, that he’d forgiven him. He wasn’t even sure if it was premeditated by Anderson. He was very gracious, very forgiving.  Chael willing to forgive Anderson went a long way with me and the chairman. He was very honorable, perhaps more than he needed to be, towards Anderson. He definitely doesn’t need me to fight his battles. Hopefully, we’ll never see anything like that again from Mr. Silva.”

Kizer then turned to Silva and said: “I told him if you ever do anything like that again you will not be invited to fight in Nevada again.”

Kizer then said: “Anderson had some very lame excuse initially about, ‘Oh, well, Chael put his head down at the beginning of that,’ I’m like, ‘C’mon, that’s silly.’ and then he said, ‘Well, I’m upset about what he said about my wife.’ I said, ‘Look, I understand that, but that’s not an excuse for doing what you did. It’s inexcusable what you did.’

“The chairman pointed out that he should be above that, that this was a very unprofessional thing to do. (Silva) wasn’t very happy with us pointing that out to him, but he understood. I finally had to say to him, ‘Look, if you ever, despite your previous record with us as a good licensee, if you ever do anything like this again, that’s it for you in Nevada. You’ll be fighting your fights elsewhere.’

“I think that got to him. Then he let down his guard and apologized and said he shouldn’t have done that, and was angry about Chael’s comments about his wife.”

Kizer said that he noticed Silva had rubbed Vaseline off his face and onto his body before the fight and that it was “more blatant that we expected.” He said referee Yves Lavigne was quick to towel down Silva before the first round, adding: “if the next few Anderson Silva fights don’t happen in Nevada, it won’t bother me in the least.”