Anderson Silva breaks silence on positive test, denies ever taking steroids and vows to clear his name

Quote :

Twenty-four hours after the news broke that he tested positive for steroids, former UFC middleweight champion Anderson Silva broke his silence.

Silva tested positive for Drostanolone and Androstane in an out-of-competition drug test administered on Jan. 9, three weeks prior to his UFC 183 headlining bout with Nick Diaz. Silva won the bout via unanimous decision.

The results of the test weren’t reported to the Nevada Athletic Commission until Tuesday, Feb. 3, but they quickly became public.

The UFC immediately issued a statement about the matter, but Silva had remained quiet until his management sent the following statement denying any wrongdoing to MMAWeekly.com on Wednesday.

“I’ve been competing in this sport for a very long time. This is my nineteenth fight in the UFC. I have been thoroughly tested many times and have never had a positive drug test,” said Silva.

“I have not taken any performance enhancing drugs. My stance on drugs is, and will always be, the same. I’m an advocate for a clean sport,” he continued.

“I’m consulting with my advisors right now to explore all of my options and intend to fight this allegation and clear my name. I will not make any further comments until my team advises me to do so.”

Silva has the option of requesting the B sample from his drug test be processed, which could put the initial A sample result in question or it could verify it. Nevada Athletic Commission executive director Bob Bennett told MMWeekly.com on Wednesday afternoon that Silva’s camp had not yet made such a request.

Currently, Silva is under a temporary suspension, at least until he has a hearing before the Nevada Athletic Commission.

He could address the commission at its Feb. 17 meeting, but does not have to address the commission that soon. He has twenty days from the written notice of his positive drug test in which to respond. So he is within his rights to respond after the Feb. 17 date.

http://www.mmaweekly.com/anderson-breaks-silence-on-testing-positive-for-steroids

Looks like we got a fight on our hands!!

well it happened to Cung Le why not Silva?

What's pretty telling to me is that he isn't leaving himself an "out" like some fighters do when discussing a failed test. You're not hearing him say "I didn't knowingly take any illegal substance" (which is code for "I did, but I want everyone to believe it wasn't my fault") or "I took some different supplements this time, so that could be the issue".
He's saying no, absolutely not. I'm clean. Always have been, always will be.

If he's going to put himself out there like that and not leave the door open even a crack to give himself an option to point the finger elsewhere, he must truly believe he isn't guilty of this in any way.

Triggerman99 wrote:

What's pretty telling to me is that he isn't leaving himself an "out" like some fighters do when discussing a failed test. You're not hearing him say "I didn't knowingly take any illegal substance" (which is code for "I did, but I want everyone to believe it wasn't my fault") or "I took some different supplements this time, so that could be the issue".
He's saying no, absolutely not. I'm clean. Always have been, always will be.

If he's going to put himself out there like that and not leave the door open even a crack to give himself an option to point the finger elsewhere, he must truly believe he isn't guilty of this in any way.

I will say i do find it odd after all the fights he has put on and always came back clean that this is starting to happen now. I was thinking maybe silva did take it at first as a mental thing to make sure he really believes his leg is 100% after that last fight with Weidman. but now i am not even so sure of that. like i said before they fucked it up with Cung Le so i could see the same with Silva. To be honest if any one should be getting examined right now it's the Commission with the way they have been handling alot of things as of late. Le,Jones,Diaz,Silva.

I think it makes perfect sense that he was using multiple steroids to fuel his superhuman/super fast comeback! Maybe he didn't know they were steroids and he just thought they were some sort of magical healing supplement or what the fuck ever. But I think steroids is the logical answer as to why he was able to comeback to fighting so soon.

But if he was using them to speed up his healing, why would he still be taking them around January 9th when the test was administered? At that point, he was well past the point of healing a broken bone and deep into full-on training camp mode, with the fight being just a few weeks down the road. All the healing his leg was doing was far done and over with months ago by the time that test was administered, so he would have no need at that point in time to be taking anything to help him heal up faster, steroids or otherwise.

The timeline just doesn't add up for him to be using steroids to aid his recovery.

I think it would be more to aid in the training on said leg rather than actually helping the bone or anything. Just juice up the muscles and less stress is on the bone and it aids in recovery of hard work outs regardless of injuries. I just find it all too convenient that the first time he was tested out of competition he fails... but he's "not using"...

was this the first time hed been tested out of comp?

That's what I read somewhere, but I honestly don't remember where. But it makes sense since they just started doing them more often recently. Also isn't this technically the second time Silva has failed a drug test? I thought he tested positive for pain killers of some sort in his fight against..... Okami I think it was?

I find it very hard to believe- even nearly impossible- that Silva has never been tested out of competition up until now. According to Bob Bennett, executive director of the NSAC, headliners are tested most of the time, and Silva being a headliner practically every time he has fought in the UFC would surely have been tested at some point before this

Quote :

Out-of-competition tests are random. "Nobody knows when we're coming, what day, whatever. We don't discuss it with anyone," said Bennett.

Such tests are only for performance-enhancing drugs, including steroids and diuretics. Blood and urine samples are sent to the WADA-accredited Sports Medicine Research and Testing Laboratory in Salt Lake City.

On fight night, samples are also taken. Bennett says most fighters on a card are tested pre- and post-event for performance-enhancing and illicit drugs.

Who is chosen fight night is random and not everyone is tested due to cost. But most are, said Bennett.

Bennett says the headliners are tested "most of the time" out of competition. He acknowledges it is not all-encompassing but says "at least it levels the playing field and lets the fighters and the promoters know that we have a pretty intensive performance-enhancing drug policy, even though there's always room for improvement."

http://www.ctvnews.ca/sports/ufc-paid-for-out-of-competition-drug-test-that-busted-anderson-silva-1.2221905

And I know what you're thinking; they just started doing out of competition testing recently, so this could potentially be the first fight Silva was subjected to the new policy. That may be true, but given the common knowledge that headliners are tested pretty often, why would Silva risk using so close to fight night, if he was simply using it to aid in the healing or taking the pressure off his leg or whatever like you said?
It just seems to me that any connection between his leg healing and steroid use is a bit of a reach given the point in time of the positive test.

- He has never been tested out of competition before.
- Multiple people from his gym have tested positive in the past.
- He had a 17-4 record before entering the UFC against fighters with sub .500 records and then became the GOAT later in life.

You do the math.

I'm probably the only person that doesn't care.
Drug policies are stupid.

I sort of dislike Silva because he's kind of a dick.

I don't know, it could be my fandom getting in the way, but I just don't see Silva as a steroid user. Honestly, if he tested positive for something else, I probably wouldn't be surprised, depending on what it was, but steroids?!
Silva's legacy is built on precision striking and overall craftiness and elusiveness- characteristics not driven or improved by steroids. If someone like GSP or Weidman tested positive for roids I probably wouldn't even question it simply because of their tendencies and methods of winning fights. That may not seem fair, but it's the truth. But Silva's game just doesn't seem like it would be benefited by steroids. Not in the long term, anyway. And like I said before, the timeline of him using short term to help with his leg doesn't add up.

The thing about steroids is anyone can be on them and there are NO surefire signs.  Some people take them to help recover more quickly from injury.  Some to help them with cardio.
Royce Gracie had like 80X the normal level of hormones and he's a skinny little bitch that never even appeared to be one with a strength/speed advantage.

People always point to the acne or angry outbursts (etc, etc), but in reality a very small percentage of steroid users have the stereotypical side affects.

In my opinion the responsible use of steroids/HGH under the supervision of a doctor far outweights the negative implications.  
The very nature of what MMA has turned into is so dangerous that I consider PEDs a relatively immaterial aspect of it all.

<-------------------------------------greatest clean MW UFC fighter of all time.