Anderson
Silva believes the end of the partnership between the UFC and
USADA could be a good thing.
Advertisement
During an interview on the Flow
podcast, “The Spider” said that he believes testing should be
more flexible, taking place only during the week of the fight.
“Depending on the sport, yes [there has to be strict control]. If
it’s an Olympic sport, it has to be there. I think the UFC
shouldn’t be so strict,” Silva said. “It’s not an Olympic sport.
The training that MMA athletes do is completely different from that
of any other fighting athlete, because they put themselves at
extremes. The guy trains boxing, wrestling, jiu-jitsu, sparring,
physical preparation and a lot of other things. There was a season
that injured a lot of people. When a guy is undergoing medical
monitoring, taking something without it being out of control, he
won’t get injured. This won’t change his performance at all in the
fight. I am in favor of drug testing during fight week. If you fall
into doping during the week of the fight, then it’s f—ed up, then
it’s not possible.”
A former middleweight champion and widely regarded as one of the
greatest fighters of all time. Silva failed two anti-doping tests
during his UFC career. In 2015, Silva had his UFC 183 victory over
Nick
Diaz overturned and was
suspended for a year due to a failed drug test that he claimed
was the result of a contaminated sexual stimulant from Thailand.
The second instance occurred in 2017, when he was preparing for a
fight against Kelvin
Gastelum. Anderson received a reduced one-year sanction from
USADA after it was determined the Brazilian
ingested a contaminated supplement.
Silva retired from MMA in 2020 after being knocked out by Uriah Hall at
UFC Fight Night 181. He has since competed three times in
professional boxing, earning victories over Julio Cesar
Chavez Jr. and Tito Ortiz
while falling to Jake Paul.