NYSAC: Chael Sonnen, Wanderlei Silva will be drug tested before Bellator NYC

Chael Sonnen and Wanderlei Silva will both be drug tested ahead of Bellator NYC, the New York State Athletic Commission (NYSAC) confirmed with MMA Fighting on Tuesday.

The news was first reported Monday by MMA Report.

Per New York State Department of State spokesperson Laz Benitez, Sonnen and SIlva, both recently coming off lengthy doping suspensions, will underdog out-of-competition drug testing administered by a third-party agency. The cost of the tests will be “borne by the athlete being tested,” Benitez said via e-mail.

Bellator president Scott Coker said Tuesday on a media conference call that the tests are expected to return before the event at New York’s Madison Square Garden on June 24. Sonnen and Silva are scheduled to compete in the night’s pay-per-view main event.

Coker said that it was his understanding that both fighters have already been tested. Silva, 40, confirmed on the call that he, indeed, has had a sample taken already. This will be his first fight back coming off a three-year suspension for evading a drug test by the Nevada Athletic Commission (NAC).

“Both fighters have been tested recently for out-of-competition testing,” Coker said. ... “Those test results will be back I want to say any day now.”

Sonnen, 40, served a two-year suspension in Nevada from 2014 to 2016 after he tested positive for banned substances in multiple drug tests prior to what would have been a 2014 fight with Silva at UFC 175.

Sonnen returned in January, falling to Tito Ortiz by first-round submission at Bellator 170 and was tested four times by the California State Athletic Commission (CSAC) in relation to that bout.