UFC middleweight Bruno Silva has accepted a six-month suspension for a “likely unintentional” drug testing failure.
The UFC’s drug testing partner, Combat Sports Anti-Doping (CSAD), announced on Friday that Silva tested positive for 3a-Hydroxy-2a-methyl-5a-androstan-17-one — a metabolite of drostanolone — in an out-of-competition sample he provided to Drug Free Sport International (DFSI) on April 11, 2024. “Blindado” also provided negative samples before being informed of the failure on March 30 (the date of his last fight), April 30 and June 14.
Silva’s positive sample also had extremely low levels of the banned substances, which led CSAD to conclude that the Brazilian did not inject drostanolone and was likely exposed to contamination. That combined with Silva’s co-operation during the entire process led to his anti-doping violation being deemed “likely unintentional.”
While this is Silva’s first drug violation under CSAD, he was suspended for two years in 2019 by the former UFC anti-doping partner USADA for testing positive for boldenone. However, the CSAD is considering this to be Silva’s first violation, as it disagrees with USADA’s stance on the possibility of boldenone being found in meat, cream and supplements in Brazil.
Currently on a three-fight slump, Silva is 4-5 overall in the UFC. “Blindado” most recently suffered a technical decision loss against Chris Weidman this past March where the bout was stopped at the 2:18 mark of Round 3 due to multiple eye pokes from Weidman.
