Anderson Silva steroids history makes him odd replacement

The UFC was in a bind with UFC 200 after Jon Jones failed an out-of-competition drug test last month and needed a replacement fighter to face Daniel Cormier. That fighter turned out to be Anderson Silva, who has a history of using steroids, making his selection an odd one.

At one point considered a phenom and perhaps the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world, Silva has seen his stardom dim lately. A winner of an incredible 17 straight fights, Silva seemed invincible. That was until he met Chris Weidman.

Silva was surprisingly knocked out by Weidman while clowning around in the octagon at UFC 162. In their rematch at UFC 168, Silva broke his leg on a kick and lost the fight.

And then the steroids happened.

Silva, who had beaten several fighters who all tested positive following their bouts — Stephan Bonnar, Chael Sonnen, Forrest Griffin and James Irvin to name a few — it was Silva’s turn to test positive. The Spider failed a prefight and postfight drug test after his win over Nick Diaz at UFC 183. The pre-fight was out of competition, during which time Silva tested positive for two steroids. He tested positive for one of those same steroids again after the fight.

Following a year ban, Silva then lost to Michael Bisping. Silva enters his fight with Daniel Cormier having lost three of his last four fights. The fourth turned into a no-contest due to his positive test and Nick Diaz testing positive for marijuana.

If the whole point of replacing one fighter who tested positive because you don’t want banned substances, why choose a guy who is coming off a year ban for steroids to replace him? That doesn’t make much sense.