Wanderlei Files Motion To Dismiss Lawsuit, Using Belfort Test As Grounds

The latest in the UFC vs. Wanderlei Silva legal battle is that the MMA legend will now be looking to get the lawsuit filed against him dismissed.

The UFC filed a complaint of “Intentional Misconduct” against Silva on July 29th, after the fighter put up several posts on his Facebook, accusing the promotion of fixing fights.

Silva’s legal team filed a motion on Oct. 3. to get the case dismissed on the grounds that the UFC fails to prove that Silva’s claims are false or that they suffered any damages from his comments.

Here’s what Terry A. Coffing, Silva’s counsel, had to say in the motion filed on Saturday:

“Before and after his retirement, Silva was one of the few who had the guts to publicly criticize the UFC’s poor treatment of its fighters, including but not limited to showing them no respect, pressuring them into accepting fights when injured and unable to adequately train, and cheating by sweeping questionable use of performance enhancing drugs under the carpet. The UFC, in an act of retaliation and intimidation, filed this defamation lawsuit, attempting to chill Silva’s free speech rights. Coincidentally, this lawsuit was filed just two months after a Nevada district court reversed the Nevada State Athletic Commission’s arbitrary and capricious sanctions against Silva. Also, this lawsuit comes just one month after an antitrust class action lawsuit filed on behalf of UFC fighters was transferred to United States District Court, District of Nevada.”

The motion also includes statements about the recent Vitor Belfort drug test scandal, saying that the report and the information included in it is was Silva’s ‘cheating’ and ‘fight fixing’ comments were geared toward.

“In fact, Silva’s “cheating” and “fight-fixing” statements were geared toward the now public evidence that the UFC allowed fighters who had failed drug tests to compete and the practice of pushing fighters to compete when injured an unable to properly train. It

1. Questionable Drug Tests.

It was recently reported on September 21, 2015, that in 2012 the UFC knew that Vitor Belfort had significantly high levels of testosterone, and it allowed Belfort to fight anyway.”

The UFC’s Dave Sholler responded to the report at this past Saturday’s UFC 192 post fight press conference, saying that the idea that the promotion tried to cover anything up is  ‘categorically false.’