Tyson Gay. Marion Jones. Barry Bonds. Mark Mcguire. Dwain Chambers. Carl Lewis. Alex Rodriguez. Lance Armstrong. The list of athletes who have used a plethora of performance enhancing drugs to give them the edge in their chosen sport goes on and on. Now you can add MMA icon Anderson Silva to this ever growing gallery of shamed sporting figures.
Only days after his triumphant return to the Octagon, news broke that the Brazilian legend and his opponent, Nick Diaz, had both failed random tests weeks prior to their headlining bout at UFC 183. Diaz, long known as an avid user of marijuana, failed for that very reason. It’s not great and if it’s banned then it shouldn't be used in the lead up to a fight, but it’s my opinion that the use of this drug doesn't really affect performance in the same way anabolic steroids do. Nick Diaz is a polarising figure; a man who'll do what he wants, when he wants to. We know that and the UFC knows that, so his failure isn't so shocking.
But Anderson Silva? Not Anderson. Surely? The man’s a legend; a figurehead for the sport. An idol that fans and fellow fighters have looked up to for well over a decade. Unfortunately it appears to be the case. Just days after begging Light Heavyweight champion Jon Jones to clean up his act in the wake of his own drug scandal, “The Spider” has himself been revealed as a drugs cheat with drostanolone metabolites along with traces of androsterone, an anabolic, and an endogenous steroid hormone respectively being discovered in his submitted sample.
While anabolic steroids are mainly used legally to replenish hormones and stimulate the growth of tissue and bone, something that Anderson required in the wake of his horrifying leg injury sustained 13 months ago, they remain completely outlawed in the competitive environment. Silva, his doctor, and his entire fighting camp would have been aware of this. They surely would have been expecting a random drug test at some point either leading up to, or following the fight, so how has this happened? Was Silva under doctor's instructions to use the steroids? If so, why wasn't it made apparent beforehand? Was Silva trying to game the system, a term coined by Chael Sonnen, a man whose own fighting career was brought to an anticlimactic end by his use of PEDs?
We'll probably never know.
Another question is why were these high profile test failures unrecognised and unpunished by the Nevada Athletic Commission and the UFC until now?
The UFC has gone on record to state that they were only made aware of the test results after the fight took place, but I don't believe that for a second. In a perfect world the NAC would have surely revealed the test results to the promoter, but this isn’t a perfect world. The UFC is a great organisation, but at the end of the day, it’s a massive money making machine. Making the test failures public knowledge prior to the bout would have been disastrous financially. Pay-per-view buys would have been down, betting would have been suspended, gates would have dropped dramatically, all with the knowledge that the main attraction fight wasn't being fought fairly.
And so just like they did with Jon Jones’ test fail just prior to UFC 182, they covered it up. From a business perspective it made sense, but morally it’s a disgusting practice. Unfortunately however nothing will change despite this latest scandal. UFC honchos The Fertitta Brothers have brought a lot of money to the state of Nevada, and have subsequently made some very powerful allies. In time something may change when outside parties demand an investigation, but that’s unlikely to happen now, maybe even ever.
Despite their statuses as prolific draws, Silva, Diaz and Jones must be punished...and I’m not talking a mere wallet dent here. Jones should have been stripped of his title for partaking in cocaine. It’s not the action expected of a champion, and history has proved that the UFC have fired lesser fighters for doing the same thing. The same applies to both Diaz and Silva. Diaz has been suspended before, and despite the substance not really having much bearing on his performance, he should be punished once again. Silva, who once ironically declared previously that a fighter who tests positive for banned substances should never fight again, should be forced to extend his self imposed hiatus from the Octagon.
Diaz, Jones...and now Silva have all been caught using drugs while in a professional environment, and while they will all likely escape severe punishment from their ethically ambiguous superiors, it still doesn't make what they have done right. Go to Wikipedia and search for the list of sports figures and athletes who have all been caught out trying to use banned substances. It’s literally endless. Our heroes, sporting and beyond will continue to seek out the means, legal or otherwise, to be better than average.
And that will unfortunately never, ever change.
Rant over.
P.S. I'm quite aware that my first rant was rather...well ranty. Another look at Daniel Cormier's hilarious Meghan Trainor parody should end this on a more positive note. Enjoy!