Today the Nevada State Athletic Commission set their precedent for fines involving licensed combatants involved in pre-fight brawls during promotional events.
Following Jon Jones and Daniel Cormier’s encounter at a promotional event for a bout scheduled in Nevada, the NSAC issued each of them a fine consisting of 10% of their reported ‘show’ purses coming in at $9,000 for Cormier and $50,000 for Jones. Additionally Jones was ordered to complete 40 hours of community service and Cormier was ordered to complete 20 hours.
The reasons for the fewer hours for Cormier were based on a finding that Jones was the aggressor for the incident. Cormier plead self defense but this was rejected by the Commission with the NSAC finding that after Jones placed his forehead on Cormier’s the appropriate response was stepping back instead of shoving Jones.
Combat Sports Law 
Erik, do you think 10% will be a sufficient deterent for athletes who get cuts of PPV buys?
I wonder if the amount of the fine is anywhere near the increase in PPV buys that the brawl might generate.
That’s a good point and the NSAC was alive to the fact that this brought greater publicity to the event. If Jones has PPV points the penalty is still a strong deterrent. For him he loses $50K but more importantly has to commit 40 hours of community service in a jurisdiction away from his fight camp. This is a big disruption and I imagine would go a long way to deter others.
The NSAC accepted this spectacle was not pre-arranged and naturally arose. I imagine the penalty would be far steeper if they found the incident was pre-arranged to hype up the fight.
The Wanderlei Silva decision is also very interesting. Apparently, if you run away from a drug test, you risk being banned from competition for life.
Wow! Has it ever happened in any sport? Why so harsh? Why not simply presume that failure to take a random drug test is tantamount to testing positive with all the consequences that follow from that?
Furthermore, if I am not mistaken, Wanderlei only agreed to fight Sonnet but never officially applied for a licence to fight in Nevada, and if so what gives NSAC jurisdiction to test him? Do all Ufc fighters automatically fall under NSAC jurisdiction the moment they are signed up?
I don’t think the NSAC had jurisdiction on the Silva matter. I’ve previously shared my views here. I suspect their decision will be overturned via judicial review. https://combatsportslaw.com/2014/06/13/why-the-nsacs-hands-are-tied-in-disciplining-wanderlei-silva/