Legacy is a loaded term; it implies that your life was one worth remembering, for better or worse. All too often, though, the word “tarnished” is paired with legacy. It’s as though they’ve become bookends for each other, a sort of Jekyll and Hyde for a person’s lasting reputation.
But how, then, should we look at Anderson Silva? After testing positive for multi-syllabic substances like drostanolone and androsterone in a random drug test from his January clash with Nick Diaz, people aren’t sure what to make of the sport’s greatest luminary. Suddenly the supreme talent of mixed martial arts has an asterisk next to his name.
It was even more alarming given the poetic justice that was Silva’s reign of terror over the middleweight division. An unsettlingly high number of his past opponents were known steroid abusers, such as Vitor Belfort, Nate Marquardt, James Irvin, and others. One of Silva’s greatest challenges was also one of the most egregious steroid abusers in the game: Chael Sonnen.
Their pairing was, and is still, largely responsible for exposing Silva to the long sought after “casual fan”. Sonnen’s PED use made Silva look all the better. Now fans had an excuse to blame Silva’s poor performance on after their first meeting; no wonder he spent the majority of the fight on his back, his opponent was juicing!
Silva emerged with an even greater celebrity than he went into the fight with. His record-setting title defenses were clean, not only in the execution of his technique, but in the “all natural” manner in which he earned them.
All of that comes into question now. No longer can we look at his nearly all-green Wikipedia page without asking ourselves, “Was he using back then, too?” All the more unsettling is the fact that Silva was caught in the UFC’s first wave of random, out-of-competition drug tests.
For those who don’t know, most of the PED-testing fighters face come only on fight night, more specifically, immediately after the contest. These tests are known colloquially as “intelligence tests”, largely because the fighter knows the specific date, time, and location he will be tested. To borrow a tired phrase, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to pass an athletic commission’s drug test.
That’s part of what’s disturbing about Silva’s positive test: he probably would have passed the post-fight check had he not been caught out of competition.
Even more disheartening was Silva’s attempt to deny the charges levelled against him. In a Nevada State Athletic Commission hearing this past week, Silva attempted to blame the positive test on a “sexual performance” drug he obtained from a friend in Thailand.
Take away all the fun we could have at the expense of such a laughable defense and we’re still left with an answer that is as comical as it is sad. Silva is too concerned with what he thinks people will perceive him as if he were to simply admit to the use. He’d clearly rather face public humiliation than have his character as a sportsman called into question.
And the worst part is that we would have pardoned his use had he just admitted to it. Silva was coming off of more than a year-long layoff from the sport after one of the most violent and devastating losses a fighter can suffer. His leg-break against Weidman is the stuff of horror films. The mental and physical anguish he endured after that loss can make shells out of men. The sad case of Corey Hill is evidence enough of what a fracture like that can do to a person.
Not that suffering the gruesome injury late in his career alone excuses his actions, but in the very least it would have stood as a proverbial olive branch to the rest of the world, as if to say, “How could I be expected to perform and heal properly without some added help?” That sits much more comfortably in our minds than a “blue vial” from a friend in Thailand.
The one man to defeat Silva during his prime said it best:
“People forgive people who are honest about their mistakes. Everyone is a screw up at the end of the day. It’s relatable. Truth sets [you] free.”
And ultimately, that’s what we want: the truth and all its trappings. We live in a world of hyperbole; modern-day fight promotion demands it of us. It’s in the private moments and passing glances that the truth comes out.
Is his legacy tarnished? It’s hard to say; if we’re being honest with ourselves, most of Silva’s peers were probably using during his record-breaking title run. More than seven of his opponents in both Pride and the UFC have tested positive in the past for steroids, and it very well could be that Silva was right there with them.
I’m sure, in the end, that history will be kind in its remembering of Silva. Regardless, though, his legacy will be forever tarnished, more so for his lack of accountability than anything else.
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