T. Silva (photo) had his contract terminated with the UFC. Photo: Josh Hedges/UFC
Recent events involving Thiago Silva had serious consequences for the Brazilian. In addition to having his preventive arrest ordered, without the right to bail, the fighter saw his contract with the UFC terminated immediately.
Thiago Silva was arrested this Friday (7) after breaking into professor Pablo Popovitch's jiu-jitsu academy and threatening people there. According to information released by the judge at the court session, Thiago even pointed a firearm at his wife, Thaíssa, suspecting that she was having an affair with Popovitch.
The UFC didn't take long to take a stance on what happened. In a statement released on its official website, the organization confirmed the exclusion of the athlete from its squad.
“The Ultimate Fighting Championship has terminated the Thiago Silva with immediate effect. We are aware of the situation involving Thiago Silva and we are collecting the facts, therefore we have no further comments to make”, says the statement.
Dana White, president of the UFC, gave a brief but direct statement about what happened: “This guy will never fight in the UFC again,” he said to the North American website TMZ Sports.
Thus, Thiago Silva was pulled from his next scheduled fight, against Ovince St Preux, at UFC 171, on March 15th. This ends a cycle of more than six years for the fighter in the organization.
The Brazilian arrived at the UFC being considered one of the country's biggest prospects in the light heavyweight category. Undefeated, he faced James Irvin in his first fight at the event, in May 2007. The victory came in a few seconds, after the American injured his knee.
Afterwards, Thiago moved closer to title contention with victories over Tomasz Drwal, Houston Alexander and Antonio “Samurai” Mendes. However, in a decisive fight in his career, he suffered his first defeat when he was knocked out by Lyoto Machida at UFC 92, in January 2009.
From then on, the Brazilian went through unstable moments within the UFC. He knocked out Keith Jardine but was then dominated by Rashad evans. After the fight with the former UFC champion, Thiago suffered from injuries and only returned to the Octagon a year later, beating Brandon Vera by the judges' decision. However, he was caught in the anti-doping test, seeing the fight turn into a no-contest (fight without result).
Once again after a year of inactivity, Thiago returned to action against Alexander Gustafson, in the first edition of the UFC held in Sweden, losing by the judges' decision. Then, in Macau, he finished Stanislav Nedkov, but again lost the victory due to being caught in the anti-doping test.
In his last two appearances, Silva knocked out Rafael Feijão in Fortaleza and dominated Matt Hamill in Barueri.
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