Good news, Nation! After a disastrous 2013 that saw Anderson Silva‘s fibula and tibia snap like a swizzle stick in the hands of a bartender with Parkinson’s, “The Spider” has been cleared to resume training! And better yet, he’s already set a timetable for his return! Why? Because you can’t keep a champion down, no matter how many times you tell him that he should just enjoy his damn legacy already, that’s why! When will we see him return? And against who? Is my sudden positivity at-all related to the ketamine I just snorted? FIND OUT BELOW.
In an interview with MMA Heat’s Karyn Bryant yesterday, Silva broke the news that he had already been given the go-ahead to resume training and is aiming for a 2015 return, not by the end of the year as Dana White has hoped for:
I’m very exciting because I back for training. My doctor in Brazil say my leg’s good. I’m very happy. And next year, I back.
This year, I no back for fight. I have my plans, I have my family and working hard on my academy in Brazil. So next year, I don’t know when, but next year.
How I’ve missed that helium-voiced, broken English so.
It’s crazy to think that Silva could presumably start full-on training next week considering it’s been just five months since he lost “by accident” in his rematch with Chris Weidman at UFC 168. While it’s still up in the air whether Silva could be granted an immediate title shot upon his return or not, you almost have to admit that the UFC needs a PPV-draw like him in a time when nearly every champion is recovering from injury.
Speaking of former champions, join us after the jump to hear the latest on former light heavyweight champion Vitor Belfort and former Ultimate Stretching Champion Cat Zingano.
We haven’t heard much from Vitor Belfort ever since he withdrew from his UFC 173-scheduled title fight with Chris Weidman in the wake of the TRT ban. Although Belfort told MMAFighting last month that he had “passed all the tests that Nevada requires on his own,” he was all but dismissed by Dana White, who claimed that Belfort needed to “solve his problems with the Nevada State Athletic Commission” before he could compete again:
He’s got a lot of work to do. That shit just doesn’t happen like that. You gotta get on the agenda. He’s got a lot of work to do. He’s fooling himself if that’s what he really thinks, he took a couple of home tests and he’s ready to roll. Or whatever he did.
Funny how when Belfort is fighting for a title, White is the first guy to defend his usage of TRT while claiming that the UFC is “testing the shit out of him,” but the minute he pulls out of said fight, TRT is “his problem.” You just don’t see flip-flopping like that everyday, folks. Unless you follow MMA, that is.
In any case, the Brazilian Athletic Commission’s medical director, Dr. Marcio Tannure, told MMAFighting earlier today that not only has Belfort figured his TRT problems out, but that he has been cleared to fight again in Brazil. And only Brazil:
He can fight here, no problem, but he can’t use TRT. Since he doesn’t have a license to use TRT anymore, he would be tested like any other fighter. Every commission has its standards. I don’t know which test he did and what was the result, so I can’t talk about it and which criteria they’re considering in (Belfort’s) case.
Every time a fighter that tested positive in the past applies for a license in Nevada is tested again, and we will adopt that here as well. This is an interesting criteria, and we will also do it, but (Belfort) never tested positive here.
Just so you know, Belfort recently stated that he “feels like an animal” without TRT thanks to the Holy Spirit, but still feels that his opponents have an advantage over him sans-TRT. So there’s that. Moving on…
To say that it’s been a harrowing year for former bantamweight #1 contender Cat Zingano would be a colossal understatement to say the least. Not only did an ACL tear force her out of a TUF 18 coaching gig (and subsequent title shot against Ronda Rousey) before casual audiences could even learn her name, but in January, her husband Mauricio was found dead after an apparent suicide.
Just over a year (and countless gross knee drain videos) after defeating Miesha Tate to earn said title shot, Zingano has finally been cleared to compete again, posting the following to her Twitter account:
An interesting way of announcing it, but good to hear nonetheless. And wouldn’t you know it, Sarah Kaufman has already stepped up and offered Zingano a “tune up” fight this summer while Ronda Rousey to dispatch fights Alexis Davis at UFC 175. How Canadian of her. That a fight you’d be interested in, Nation?
Oh yeah, almost forgot…
Booyah.