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Anderson Silva is hoping to resume his mixed martial arts career. On Wednesday, July 18, Ariel Helwani of ESPN announced that the former UFC middleweight champion is eligible to return to the Octagon in October 2018. Silva has been serving a suspension from USADA. The suspension is retroactive to October 2017, meaning Silva can return in three months after it was “deemed his positive drug test was due to contaminated substances.”
The suspension stemmed from a failed out-of-competition drug test collected on Oct. 26, 2017 which forced him to withdraw from his scheduled main event bout against Kelvin Gastelum at UFC Shanghai.
“I am vindicated,” Silva said in a statement released to Helwani via his PR team. “The past nine months have been extremely difficult. I felt like my career and everything I had worked so hard for was dying and my future was hanging in the balance. I knew in my heart that I had done nothing wrong and fully cooperated with USADA during their inquiry to prove it.
“Today I have a renewed energy. My legacy is restored. I can focus on getting back into the ring and the next chapter of my life after fighting.”
There is no word on who Silva could face in his return to action.
In his most recent outing, Silva earned a unanimous decision victory over Derek Brunson at UFC 208 in Brooklyn, New York. It was Silva’s first official win since defeating Stephan Bonnar at UFC 153 in 2012. In that bout, Silva earned a first-round TKO victory and extended his UFC record for most consecutive wins at 16. It was the final fight for Silva as a UFC champion, despite the bout being at light heavyweight.
At UFC 183 in January 2015, Silva scored a unanimous decision win over Nick Diaz. However, the bout was overturned to a no contest after Silva tested positive for drostanolone and androsterone. Diaz, meanwhile, tested positive for marijuana metabolites.
