Ex-UFC light heavyweight Thiago Silva is still being held in jail without bond for a domestic violence incident on Thursday that saw the Brazilian slugger pull a gun on his estranged wife and her boyfriend.
A SWAT team was then dispatched to Silva’s home before the fighter was detained and taken to Florida’s Broward County Jail.
That aspect of the arrest has Silva’s attorney, Scott Saul, up in arms, according to an interview with TMZ Sports.
There was NO REASON for cops to call in the SWAT team to apprehend Thiago Silva … the “trigger-happy” police simply overreacted … so says the UFC fighter’s lawyer … Saul says … cops went “overboard” because he’s a UFC fighter. … “There was no allegation of harm against anyone,” Saul says … ‘But they treated it like a terrorist threat.”
Silva was 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.
After details of the incident emerged, UFC President Dana White told TMZ Sports,”This guy will never fight in the UFC again.”
According to a police report dated January 30, per Jesse Holland of MMA Mania, Silva had been having ongoing domestic issues with his estranged wife Thaysa, put a gun in her mouth and threatened to kill her during this incident in question.
The 31-year-old Blackzilian team member was preparing for a fight with Strikeforce import Ovince St. Preux at UFC 171 next month, but has since been replaced by Nikita Krylov.
The heavy-handed striker, with a black belt in Brazilian jiu-jitsu to boot, had been a staple in the lower portion of the UFC’s Top 10 rankings at 205 pounds.
Inside the Octagon, Silva had decisively won consecutive bouts over Rafael Cavalcante and Matt Hamill after a 0-2 (2) stretch between January 2010 and November 2012.
John Heinis is a featured columnist for Bleacher Report. He is also the MMA editor for eDraft.com.
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