It’s been a dramatic 24 hours for the UFC with Wanderlei Silva blasting the promotion as he announced his retirement, Anthony Johnson being suspended indefinitely relating to allegations of domestic abuse, and now Thiago Silva again being cut from the promotion too.
Silva had only just been welcomed back by the UFC after charges were dropped against him relating to an alleged domestic assault incident with his ex-wife Thaysa Kamiji earlier this year in which he was alleged to have threatened to kill her while pointing a gun in her direction.
However, the incident has now come back to haunt Silva as new video evidence has come to light that has led to the UFC deciding to part ways with him again.
“Thiago Silva was released from his UFC contract on Feb. 7 due to his arrest by police in South Florida,” a statement from the UFC reads. “The charges against Silva were dropped by the Broward County District Attorney’s office and Silva was re-signed to the UFC earlier this month. Based on new information received today in the form of video and audio evidence, Silva has been terminated from his UFC contract.
The new evidence came from Kamiji, now living in Abu Dhabi, who posted up several videos on YouTube after being angered by Silva’s claims on the most recent edition of The MMA hour radio show that she was a liar.
The videos, which can be seen below, feature Silva and Kamiji talking in Portugese, but MMAfighting.com have offered a translation of their conversation.
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Thiago Silva: Why did you call the police, honey? I didn’t do anything. Why are you filming me?
Thiago Silva: Honey, why are you doing this? Tell me.
Thaysa Kamiji: Can you leave the kitchen? I’m making food. Get out of the house.
Thiago Silva: Why did you do this?
Thaysa Kamiji: Get out of the house. Get out of the house. I don’t want a junkie in my house.
Thaysa Kamiji: Thiago, stop looking at me like that. Give me the gun, please. I’m here.
Thiago Silva: So turn off that camera. I know you’re hiding someone upstairs. You think I’m a fool?
Thaysa Kamiji: (Hiding) who, Thiago?
Thiago Silva: I’m not an idiot. Honey, you’re putting this light in my face so I can’t see anything. Get this thing off of me.
Thaysa Kamiji: No, Thiago. Because if I do, this is proof.
Thiago Silva: Proof of what? You’re not going to die. You’re lying. Someone’s here and will do something, I’m not an idiot.
Thaysa Kamiji: Thiago, one day you’ll kill me because of this addiction.
Thiago Silva: I won’t kill you, and you’re doing something inside (this house).
Thaysa Kamiji: Doing what, Thiago?
Thiago Silva: You called someone here, Thaysa. I know. I’m not an idiot.
Thaysa Kamiji: I didn’t call anyone here. Thiago, it’s you. I’m filming you.
Thiago Silva: Why are you doing this?
Thaysa Kamiji: So when you’re normal, you can see what you did. You grabbed a gun.
Thiago Silva: I didn’t do anything. Stop, Thaysa, stop lying.
Thaysa Kamiji: Lie? You just grabbed a gun with your hand.
Thiago Silva: I have it on my pocket. I didn’t do anything.
It always seemed a strange decision on the UFC’s part to bring Silva back given the nature of his alleged crime and the fact that the light-heavyweight fighter already had a poor disciplinary record in the promotion, having been suspended twice for failed drugs tests in the past.
In hindsight it’s proven to have been a PR blunder by the promotion and has now only added to the wave of negative publicity that’s currently enveloping the UFC.
