Thiago Silva has been released and Anthony Johnson suspended indefinitely by the UFC after separate revelations emerged Friday afternoon illustrating histories of domestic violence from both fighters.
On Friday, Silva’s ex-wife, Thaysa Kamiji, posted two videos (h/t to Zane Simon of Bloody Elbow), the first apparently depicting Silva carrying a gun and searching his house for an unnamed person, and the second allegedly showing him high on cocaine. (First video below.)
A statement posted to UFC.com soon after the videos appeared announced that Silva had been released.
Thiago Silva was released from his UFC contract on Feb. 7 due to his arrest by police in South Florida. The charges against Silva were dropped by the Broward County District Attorney’s office and Silva was re-signed to the UFC earlier this month. Based on new information received today in the form of video and audio evidence, Silva has been terminated from his UFC contract.
The move comes just two weeks after the UFC reinstated Silva into the promotion. Silva was released in February after he barricaded himself and Kamiji, then his wife, in his Florida home, touching off an armed standoff with a SWAT team that ended in Silva’s tasing and arrest.
A judge dropped all charges related to that incident on Sept. 4 after Kamiji declined to cooperate in the investigation.
“He went through the legal process and came out of it untainted,” UFC president Dana White said after the reinstatement. “He deserves to be able to make a living again. He’s back under contract.”
Also on Friday, Bloody Elbow’s Brent Brookhouse broke the story that the mother of two of Anthony Johnson’s children has filed a police report claiming that people associated with Johnson are threatening her. Also, in 2012, according to the Bloody Elbow report, Johnson knocked out two of the woman’s teeth.
In 2009, Johnson pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor domestic violence charge related to a confrontation with a different woman. He served three years of probation and performed community service.
The UFC also posted a statement on Johnson Friday afternoon:
We are aware of the situation involving Anthony Johnson. As a result, we are suspending him indefinitely. We are using a third-party law firm to conduct a formal investigation and once we have more information, we’ll determine whether further course of action is necessary.
The new evidence and the UFC’s decisions all arrive, of course, as the NFL struggles through a higher-profile string of problems related to its handling of domestic violence incidents among its own players, most notably Baltimore Ravens running back Ray Rice.
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