A. Silva could fight again in November this year. Photo: Reproduction / Twitter UFC_Brasil
After almost a year of waiting, the US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) finally announced the suspension of Anderson Silva. The Brazilian, who was caught in a test carried out before his fight against Kelvin Gastelum, in November 2017, could take a hook of up to four years. However, this Wednesday (18), the entity revealed that Spider was punished with just 12 months. As the period starts counting from the announcement of the change in the test, the former UFC champion will be able to return to activities on November 10th of this year.
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At the time, Anderson was removed from the fight against Gastelum at UFC China and has been preventively suspended since then. As he was already a repeat offender, rumors suggested that the fighter could be suspended until the end of 2023. But the Brazilian's defense alleged contamination of a supplement and USADA applied a minimum sentence to the Brazilian.
Check below the official note from the US Anti-Doping Agency on the suspension of Anderson Silva.
USADA announces suspension of Anderson Silva
“USADA announced this Wednesday that Anderson Silva, of Palos Verdes, California, accepted a one-year suspension for his second violation of the organization's anti-doping code after testing positive for banned substances contained in contaminated supplements.
Silva, 43 years old, is the fourth athlete to accept the sanction provided for in the UFC Anti-Doping Policy after the positive result of a test caused by the use of contaminated supplements purchased from a Brazilian laboratory. Unlike conventional pharmacies, which receive their products from commercial manufacturers, laboratories prepare their own medicines according to specifications contained in written prescriptions. Therefore, laboratories also produce and sell nutritional supplements. Even with UFC athletes being repeatedly warned that such supplements pose a risk of contamination, as they also contain prohibited chemical compositions not listed on their labels, such as dangerous drugs, the laboratory that prepared the supplements Anderson Silva sold them as a safe alternative to muscle-building medications and supplements, and also claimed to use processes specifically created to eliminate the possibility of cross-contamination.
Anderson Silva tested positive for methyltestosterone metabolites 17α-methyl-5β-androstan-3α,17β-diol and 17α-methyl-5α-androstan-3α,17β-diol, and also for hydrochlorothiazide, in a urine test performed outside the competition period on October 26, 2017. Methyltestosterone is an unspecified substance in the “Anabolic Agents” category, while hydrochlorothiazide is a specified substance in the “Diuretics and Masking Agents” class. The use of both substances is prohibited at any time by the UFC Anti-Doping Policy, which adopted the list of substances prohibited by WADA (World Anti-Doping Agency).
After positive notification of your exam, Anderson Silva gave USADA an open sample of the supplement he was using at the time. Although no banned substances are listed on the supplement label, testing conducted by the WADA-accredited laboratory in Salt Lake City confirmed the presence of methyltestosterone and hydrochlorothiazide in the product. However, in the course of investigations by Brazilian laboratories, USADA listed several supplements from the same laboratory that prepared Silva's supplement. Analysis of these products by the Salt Lake City laboratory confirmed that they were similarly contaminated with banned substances, including several anabolic agents and diuretics.
The UFC Anti-Doping Policy, as well as the World Anti-Doping Code, determine that if an athlete's positive test was caused by a contaminated product, their sentence may be reduced. In this case, the duration of the sanction also reflects the fact that it is the second violation of Anderson Silva. In the first, the Nevada Athletic Commission decided to impose a one-year suspension after the athlete was caught using several prohibited substances. If no reduction had been applied because Silva was a victim of contaminated products, the standard punishment for a second violation involving unspecified substances would have been a four-year suspension.
The one-year suspension began on November 10, 2017, the date on which the suspension was imposed. Silva will be cleared to return to competition at the end of his sanction on November 10, 2018. In accordance with the UFC Anti-Doping Policy, all athletes suspended for anti-doping violations must remain available to be tested, with the goal of receiving credit for the time under sanction.”
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