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Anderson Silva’s Steroid Use Tarnishes His Legacy

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By @paul_past

Jayne Kamin-Oncea-USA TODAY Sports

Jayne Kamin-Oncea-USA TODAY Sports

With the news that former middleweight champion Anderson “The Spider” Silva tested positive for anabolic steroid metabolites ahead of his fight with Nick Diaz at UFC 183, his return to MMA can no longer be considered impressive or inspiring.

Silva is now a cheat, plain and simple, and what he did was selfish, disrespectful, inept and morally wrong.

Former two-division champion BJ Penn once said, “I just think it’s wrong to use steroids, growth hormones, blood doping – all the different things in this particular sport because it’s a combat sport,” the implication being that combat sports, which can be deadly, become significantly more dangerous when a fighter uses performance-enhancing drugs. Silva knew this and obviously chose to ignore it.

Does the fact that Silva was coming back from a shattered leg against Chris Weidman 13 months ago excuse his actions? The simple answer is no. Not unless, like Silva, you believe that cheating and returning to the UFC supersedes the integrity of the sport, which already suffers from a long and continuous record of rampant steroid use.

In fact, Silva now joins Dan Henderson, Wanderlei Silva, Alistair Overeem, Josh Barnett, Tim Sylvia, Nate Marquardt, Vitor Belfort, Stephan Bonnar, Antonio Silva, Chris Leben, Ken Shamrock and Cung Le, among many other big-name UFC fighters, who have taken performance-enhancing drugs.

Of course, Silva denies the validity of the drug test results, even though the drug test was conducted by the Nevada State Athletic Commission. According to a report by the Associated Press and ESPN’s Brett Okamoto, Silva told a Brazilian radio station that he was “disappointed” and “upset” with the news that he’d tested positive, and that he “believes there was ‘contamination’ or a ‘mistake by the laboratory’ that handled his test.” The same report stated that Silva will request that his “B” sample be tested.

Silva’s rebuttal should come as no surprise; many fighters deliberately lie after they’ve been caught testing positive for banned substances. Silva, barring a freak laboratory accident, is no exception.

Keep in mind that Silva’s blood and urine tests were conducted on Jan. 9, Jan. 19, and Jan. 31, and that these specific positive results are from his Jan. 9 tests, which for whatever reason weren’t made available until Feb. 3. Results of the Jan. 19 drug test are currently unavailable.

Much less notable is the fact that Diaz tested positive for marijuana in his post-fight test. Diaz is a well-known marijuana user. This is his third time testing positive for marijuana in the UFC. Comparatively speaking, Diaz’s failed drug test is no big deal; from an athletic standpoint, marijuana is more of a detriment than anything else, and the fact that Diaz survived Silva over the course of five rounds is all the more impressive.

Immediately following the fight, former middleweight contender Chael Sonnen, who had also taken performance-enhancing substances and was serving as an ESPN commentator, said of Silva’s performance, “Nobody comes back from an injury; nobody comes back from a layoff and physically looks better.”

Unfortunately, now we know why.

Paul Pastorini is a Boxing Writer for www.RantSports.com. Follow him on Twitter @paul_past, find him on Facebook, or add him to your network on Google.

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