UFC Cuts Thiago Silva Again, Suspends Anthony Johnson Amid Domestic Violence Crisis

Domestic violence has plagued two major North American sporting promotions in 2014: the NFL, who have had to contend with the despicable actions of Ray Rice and Adrian Peterson, and the UFC, who have had scandals involving Will Chope, former fighters War Machine and Josh Grispi, an ongoing and bizarre situation with Thiago Silva, and now accusations of abuse by the partner of Anthony Johnson, the recently resigned, surging light heavyweight who looked to be a possible threat to champion Jon Jones. First, the Thiago Silva situation took a bizarre turn Friday, when Silva's ex-wife Thaysa posted videos of the fighter that showed him apparently high on cocaine (difficult to tell on the video, taken with a laptop webcam) and brandishing a gun. The gun is clearly visible in one of the two videos. This move brought renewed focus on UFC President Dana White's asinine decision to re-sign Silva after charges against him were dropped earlier in the month. At the time, White stated Silva had been "acquitted" and deserved to make a living, despite common sense dictating that to be acquitted, one needs to have a trial. In reality, with his ex-wife having fled the country, prosecutors in the case opted to drop charges as they had lost their star witness. However, Thaysa told MMAfighting.com that the police "already knew I had a job offer in Abu Dhabi and that was an opportunity to restart my career with the man of my life, doing what I love." It also appears that they were aware of the video evidence, however for whatever reason, they opted not to pursue the fighter, who had threatened to shoot up a gym Thaysa was at, and had to be tasered after a stand-off with a SWAT team. The honest truth is, Silva should never have been signed back to the UFC period, regardless of Dana White's confusion of what the world "acquitted" means. As the UFC pushes women's MMA, in large part due to the popularity of star bantamweight champ Ronda Rousey, and launches a new women's strawweight division, they need to be cognizant of the fact that women are key to the success of the promotion more than ever before. Welcoming back a violent, abusive character such as Thiago Silva shouldn't have even been considered. Things went from bad to worse after that, however, as the promotion announced later in the day that light heavyweight star Anthony Johnson, a fighter on his second run with the promotion and looking strong, considered by many to be a legit threat to champ Jon Jones, had been suspended after allegations of domestic violence as well. The suspension is indefinite, and the UFC have stated they have hired a third party law firm to investigate. The Johnson suspension stems from a report on Bloody Elbow that details allegations by the mother of Johnson's children that she is receiving threats from a person or persons she believes are friends of Johnson's, and that she is in fear of Johnson based on the fighter allegedly knocking out two of her teeth in 2012. Johnson was also charged and convicted of domestic violence in 2009, show this is not an isolated incident. It's clear that the UFC needs to beef up its fighter code of conduct, as though it has been less widely covered, their current domestic violence crisis is as bad as, if not worse, than the NFL's.