Alex Davis, the manager for Antonio Silva, believes the amount of criticism the heavyweight has received is not fair.
Antonio Silva won’t be able to fight until September, but his manager believes the amount of the criticism for the heavyweight is not fair.
“Bigfoot” Silva tested positive for elevated levels of testosterone following a five-round battle with Mark Hunt at UFC Fight Night 33 in Brisbane, Australia, in December. The draw was overturned to a no=contest, and the Brazilian was suspended for nine months.
Silva was granted a therapeutic use exemption (TUE) for testosterone replacement therapy (TRT) for the fight, but ended up taking more shots then he should have. The heavyweight told MMAFighting.com he plans to continue the treatment for his next fights, and Davis thinks he should.
“This is one of the guys that really have authentic technical reasons to be on TRT,” Davis said on Monday’s edition of The MMA Hour. “He has acromegaly. His pituitary gland overproduces GH (growth hormone) and that unbalances all his other hormones.”
According to Davis, Silva’s hormones are so unbalanced that he has lactated in the past.
“When I started managing him, he was actually lactating,” he said. “He has extreme low testosterone. He has extremely low testosterone, so he has a real reason to be on TRT.”
Silva blamed Dr. Marcio Tannure, who also plays the role of medical director of the Brazilian MMA Athletic Commission (CABMMA), for failing the post-fight drug test, and Davis said “miscommunication” led to the results.
“I didn’t really take part on the TRT process,” he said. “There was a miscommunication between him and his doctor. If I was in the middle of it maybe we would have avoided it. I didn’t realize I needed to be involved.”
“He took the instructions wrong, but he did not try to cheat,” he continued. “What happened was, there was a miscommunication with the doctor and he ended up taking injections at the wrong time. He was taking (once) a month then started taking (once) a week. He took one a week before the fight and one at the week of the fight, which wasn’t supposed to. It got mixed up.”
“Bigfoot”, who considered retiring from MMA after the fight, leaves the decision to the UFC.
“It’s up to the UFC, I don’t know what’s going to happen,” Bigfoot said in December. “If they allow me to, I want to continue, but now with a doctor that won’t give me any problems. I want to continue the treatment because it’s good for my personal life and my career as well. If you know what acromegaly is, you know what I have. My hormonal levels are not normal, my testosterone is too low, and I want to be on normal levels.”