Anderson Silva Says UFC Should Rethink Stance Against TRT

Anderson Silva spoke with Rap 77 for a new interview discussing the UFC’s ban on TRT, USADA’s work with the UFC and more. Video is below, plus highlights per MMAjunkie (you can turn on English subtitles for the video):

On the TRT ban: “There are some athletes who need to make use of the hormonal replacement. I think, if USADA regulated that, we’d have the sport at a high level, with athletes who have stopped fighting. Vitor, for example. Even me, though I never had the replacement. But some athletes who really need it, who are older. Dan Henderson, many other athletes who have stopped because of this.”

On USADA: “USADA’s entrance in the UFC to control the doping situation, the way I see it, was good. But, in a certain way, it ends up being a disturbance. Because MMA isn’t a regular sport like all the others. It demands from the athlete fighting training, physical training. There are other countless technical valencies that they have to maintain(like) injuries, etc. I’m in favor of doping control, for sure. I think no athlete should or can be, on fight day, taking advantage of some situation. But I think they need to review this. Because there are many injuries, many athletes getting hurt, many fights getting cancelled due to athletes getting injured, etc…For instance, you take a Tylenol, you can get caught in the doping. You take aspirin, you can get caught in the doping. There are many things, many medicines that the athlete uses, that they have to always be policing themselves. … I’m not against USADA; I’m totally in favor, but I think there should be a certain (flexibility) when it comes to what is allowed and what isn’t.”

On a possible rematch with Nik Diaz: “I think the fight with Nick Diaz would be a very cool fight, very interesting. Because our last fight, both of us ended up getting caught in the doping, and it was a no-contest. So, actually, the fight didn’t exist. But I think Nick is a guy who has a name, a guy who has a history in this sport. And what we can’t accept is going into the UFC’s game of wanting to use the legends that they have to promote the young guys. I’ve talked about this a lot with Nick and with other athletes, as well. We don’t have an issue with fighting any of these kids. We don’t have an issue. We just want to be respected for everything we have built in this sport. Never, in my early trajectory, I never called out anyone. I always let things happen naturally. And I think it can’t be different. The UFC has this thing of wanting to promote new talents that don’t have the charisma with the older athletes who have the charisma and who knew how to get the machine working when we were in there. And that’s something that today’s kids can’t do. They go up there, they fight, do good fights. But, once they open their mouths, they only say crap. And they can’t get charisma with the audience. It’s no use being a good fighter and not being charismatic.”