MMA veteran Thiago Silva was arrested Thursday evening after an incident at the Pablo Popovitch’s school in Oakland Park, Fla., where he allegedly threatened to kill persons inside the school, including his ex-wife, Thaysa Silva.
While Popovitch, an Abu Dhabi Combat Club winner in 2009 and three-time submission world champion, initially declined to comment the situation, but went on his Facebook page Friday night to address the subject.
“During our evening class, at around 7:45pm, Thiago Silva was outside sitting in his car honking the horn non-stop. Thaysa went outside to talk to Thiago to understand what was happening and saw a gun,” Popovitch wrote.
“After that, I went to see what was happening and also saw that he had a gun. He seemed to be under the influence of some type of drug whether alcohol or drugs. My staff notified the police at that time, and soon after the police arrived. He took off and the police went after him.”
A SWAT team forced Thiago Silva to exit his house later that evening, and he was finally arrested, then charged with two counts of aggravated assault with a weapon, aggravated battery with a deadly weapon, and one count of resisting an officer without violence.
“Thaysa has been separated and living alone since December of 2012,” Popovitch said. “Thiago has been charged with battery in the past and was seeing other girls and moving on with his own life.
“It’s very unfortunate that this had to happen, the last thing I wanted us to see Thiago in this manner. I wish him all the best and hope this will soon be over.”
Thiago Silva was immediately released from the UFC, and Dana White said “he will never fight in the UFC again.”