Michael Bisping believes Anderson Silva has tarnished his legacy after being flagged by the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency (USADA).
Silva was set to meet Kelvin Gastelum inside the Mercedes Benz Arena in Shanghai, China. The middleweight clash was scheduled to headline UFC Fight Night 122 on Nov. 25. Those plans went awry.
“The Spider” was removed from the card after a potential USADA violation. This isn’t the first time Silva has had doping issues. He tested positive for two anabolic steroids following his unanimous decision win over Nate Diaz. That result was overturned to a no contest. Bisping will replace Silva at UFC Shanghai.
Many considered Silva to be the greatest mixed martial artist of all time, but his positive drug tests have put an asterisk next to his name. During a recent media conference call, Bisping said Silva has done irreparable damage to his name (via MMAFighting.com):
“This completely destroys his legacy, in my opinion. There’s a lot of people who have short memories and they’ll just remember his performances. His performances were great. But if you test positive for steroids twice — once, you can try to talk your way out of it; twice, I think the nail’s in the coffin. The guy was a cheat and it’s shame. It’s really, really disappointing. I was a huge fan of Anderson Silva. It’s just disappointing and it’s a black eye for the sport of MMA.”
