Anderson Silva has given his reaction to being exoneration after failing a drug test that has kept him out of the Octagon for less than a year.
On Tuesday (July 19, 2018), it was revealed that the former UFC middleweight champion received a one-year suspension from USADA dating back to October of 2017 and will be eligible to return in October of this year where he plans to resume his career.
This comes off the fact that he was flagged late last due to a U.S. Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) violation as he tested positive for two banned substances, which were methyltestosterone and a diuretic, as those samples were collected back on October 26, 2017.
After the news was broken, Silva spoke with MMA Fighting about being feeling vindicated for his latest drug test failure that was the result of a contaminated supplement, which he expressed to feel free and have the truth be known instead of being labeled a cheater like in the past.
“I feel that the most important thing was establishing the truth. The doubt about what really happened was bothering me the most. Some people kept asking me to talk, but I didn’t say absolutely nothing because I wanted the truth to come out. I never needed any type of illegal substance to fight, I’m against that, and thank God the truth was established.
No, because I have everything I used. Every supplement, every test. I’ve done a number of doping tests and I had my conscience clear. Thank God everything was solved, and now I can move on and continue (fighting).
The difference is that this time I was surrounded by a team that was truly professional. Lawyers, an entire medical staff here in the United States. We gave all the information we had to USADA and really cleared this situation, something that didn’t happen in the past. It wasn’t clear before. Anyway, that’s in the past, let’s think ahead now. Everything was cleared, and thank God I will be able to come back as soon as possible.”
With him being able to fight once again later this year, there are some questions regarding his future as how many fights he has left on his contract, if he thinks he could still be UFC champion at 43 years of age and potentially fighting former title contender Yoel Romero for an interim belt.
“I believe I still have three fights in my contract. What happened was that they wanted me to fight Yoel Romero, but Romero was No. 1 in the ranking for a title fight, and it would make no sense for Yoel Romero to fight me instead of fighting for the belt. I talked about it, said that it would be right to put Yoel Romero against me for an interim belt since he was the No. 1. But I don’t have anyone in mind for me to fight.
Man, I’m in great shape, I have what it takes to fight anyone, and now I’ll wait for UFC’s decision. I’ll talk to my team and see what we’ll do. But I don’t have anyone in mind. I’ll wait and see the decisions that will be made.”
This marked the first time that Silva has potentially violated the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency program, but this isn’t his first time failing a drug test as he is a repeat offender because if you recall, he failed a drug test around the time of his UFC 183 fight with Nick Diaz in January 2015 before USADA partnered with the MMA promotion.
As a result of that failure, he received a one-year suspension and $380,000 fine from the Nevada State Athletic Commission. At the time, Silva claimed that the reason he failed was due to a tainted sexual enhancer.
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