Antonio Silva. Pic by SHERDOG.COM -click for source- Credit: Dave Mandel

This is simply dumb.

That’s all I can muster in response to this latest news. The most fun and sensational heavyweight bout that we’ve had the pleasure of watching is now tainted by Antonio Silva‘s failed post-fight drug test for elevated testosterone levels (first reported by MMA Junkie).

What’s infuriating is that it turns the obvious ‘fight of the year’ candidate into a sham. It’s no longer valid. It becomes one of the great sports moments that actually never was right alongside the insanity of Armstrong‘s success in professional cycling and the hoax that was the home run record breaking era of the 1990’s in baseball.

It’s obviously not as grand of a fiasco as those, but it’s still along the same vein as one of our sport’s fondest memories is actually not what it seems to be. So who’s to blame for this?

Of course, the athlete is not claiming responsibility so far. Instead, Silva has named the culprit as his “UFC Doctor” more accurately known as the director of the Brazilian MMA Commission, Dr. Marcio Tannure. He stated that Dr. Tannure advised him to up his dosage of TRT because his levels were too low.

Silva is so convinced of his innocence that he’s even gone to the extent of posting the direct e-mails onto his Facebook as evidence of his doctor’s error as well as he has threatened to sue the doctor in an attempt to clear his name.

Antonio Silva's Doctor E-Mail
Silva’s Translation text: “Hey Pezao, Your levels are still low. You can start one shot per week. Let’s see how that will look on the next test. Contact me if you have questions.”

Dr. Tannure responded to the allegations in an e-mail to MMA Junkie stating “Antonio ‘Bigfoot’ Silva has made some inaccurate statements in the media recently concerning the circumstances leading up to his positive test for an elevated testosterone ratio.”He’s also claiming that he had “limited involvement” as he is not Antonio Silva’s medical doctor.

He is however a UFC hired doctor while they enter new markets where there isn’t an athletic commission. Apparently his job for this fight was to monitor Antonio Silva’s testosterone levels. (read the whole thing)

Meanwhile, the all-powerful Dana White is reduced to sad face emoticons on this issue. No thoughts on the subject other than feigned malaise and “Mark Hunt is a BAD ASS.”

Dana White Screen Grab

At the same time the UFC casually suspended the heavyweight for nine months and stripped him of his $50,000 ‘fight of the night’ bonus pinning all the blame back on the man known as “Big Foot” as though they aren’t at all complicit in giving Silva TRT in the first place.

I don’t understand why they seem to not care that one of their shining moments is overshadowed by a steroid scandal.

Once again, this is dumb.

I originally thought of Hunt vs Bigfoot as MMA at it’s most sublime and I mean exactly that. It was an absolute bloody mess, but still competitive and gripping in a way that we hadn’t seen in a main event since Shogun vs Henderson in 2011.

Now it just points back to all the sport’s glaring problems, the kinds that give credence to the muckraker MMA non-believers like Phil (Buzz) Rothfield who characterized UFN 33’s main event as “barbaric.” In the most minimal sense he’s sort of right. There is something vile about all this.

I’m not saying that I know how to solve this issue or what’s best for those involved. Are steroids really necessary to produce fights like those? I’m just sickened that one of MMA’s best offerings this year is now the latest victim of TRT gone awry. That satisfying majority draw is no more and we’re still waiting for the powers that be to actually act on the problem that is steroids in MMA.