This might not be the best look for UFC. Thiago Silva, owner of a 16-3-2 UFC record, was re-contracted by UFC yesterday. Silva, who has been suspended by UFC in the past for failing a drug test, was arrested back in February for going on a GTA-style rampage, but without the killing. There were three separate incidents that culminated in Silva taking on a SWAT team outside of a Florida gym. Each was described in their own police reports.
In the first, Silva's alleged to have put a gun in his now ex-wife's mouth to quiet her during an argument over Silva's adultery. A few days later, after a court-issued injunction got Silva kicked out of their house, she came home to find him hanging out. She asked him to leave, and he peacefully did after a short conversation. Right after he left, she received a text from him that read, "I am going to fuck you up and you are going to die. I am going to hire someone to kill you and I am gonna move my girlfriend in."
To recap: Silva got caught cheating and pulled a gun on his wife, then ignored a restraining order because he wanted everything to go back to normal, and then threatened to hire an assassin while concurrently confirming his extramarital relationship. Nice.
Things all came to a head in the third incident. Silva showed up at a gym where his ex-wife and her boyfriend (turns out, both of them were cheating all along!) were training together. Silva pulled a gun on her and threatened to shoot up the gym unless her boyfriend came outside. After some screaming, further threats, a phone call, and a little frantic action, a SWAT team showed up and took Silva down. Given that Silva isn't white, is huge and scary, and that this all happened in Florida against Florida police, it's truly a miracle that nobody was killed.
In the aftermath, UFC dropped Silva from its roster. But besides that, things have been looking up for him. The initial charges were downgraded from attempted murder to aggravated assault with a firearm, and now, the charges have been dropped completely because, "The victim was uncooperative and investigators determined that she has likely moved out of the country."
Today, Silva's a free, living man with a professional sports contract. Somehow.
UFC president Dana White had previously stated that Silva would never be a UFC fighter ever again, but he's come around since, saying, "When I watched it unfold on TV and heard of the charges, it didn't look good for Thiago Silva. But he was acquitted of all charges. How do you not let the guy fight again? ... He went through the legal process and came out of it untainted."
One factual mistake though: Having charges dropped is completely different than being "acquitted," and going "through the legal process" and coming out of it "untainted" isn't the same as what actually happened, because Silva's wife ran away from investigators (likely out of fear or for money; etc) and his record still has a SHOWDOWN WITH A SWAT TEAM on file.
Imagine the shit Roger Goodell would get if he made a decision this idiotic. I guess that's what UFC is though: An organization that gives second chances to alleged wife-beaters and attempted murderers if they game the system.
[via UFC]
