Dana White was 'messed up' for days after Anderson Silva tested positive
The string of positive drug tests in the UFC recently has been unsettling to say the least, but former middleweight champion Anderson Silva's was the most shocking of the entire bunch.
Silva is widely considered the greatest fighter of all time and sat at the top of the pound-for-pound rankings for years while he was champion in the UFC. Silva returned from more than a year away from the sport in January after suffering a horrendous broken leg in his last fight against Chris Weidman in December 2013.
Silva won his fight over Nick Diaz and then just days later a test returned from the Nevada State Athletic Commission showing a positive result for two different performance-enhancing drugs.
In a prepared statement made just after the test results became public, UFC president Dana White said that he would support and stand by the former champion as he dealt with the fallout from the situation.
White admitted at the UFC Fight Night post fight press conference on Saturday that hearing about Silva's test was definitely one of the most shocking moments he's had in the sport of MMA.
"It screwed me up for a few days," White said. "I was messed up for a few days after that. I've been a huge Anderson Silva fan, too, but we'll talk about that on Wednesday."
Wednesday marks a UFC press conference that will be held in Las Vegas to address the rash of recent positive drug tests that including Silva and top five ranked welterweight Hector Lombard as well.
While the company hasn't said specifically what the press conference will cover, White illuminated on the subject just slightly on Saturday and promised that repercussions are coming for drug users in the UFC.
White didn't speak to anything in terms of punishment or sanctions that could be made for fighters who test positive in the future, but from the sound of things, Wednesday's meeting will be a paradigm shift in how the UFC deals with positive drug tests in the future.
"Lots of bad s--t. We're not going to be talking about fun things," White said. "We'll address all the things that have happened lately and what we're going to do and what's going to happen from here on out."
The UFC holds power over all the fighters under the code of conduct policy the promotion enacted in 2013. Drug test failures will result in a violation of the policy, but the UFC may look to make a uniform penalty for any fighters who test positive for performance enhancing drugs in the future.
FOX Sports will have full coverage of the UFC press conference addressing performance-enhancing drug use in the sport of MMA this Wednesday.
