Former UFC Light Heavyweight Thiago Silva is currently being held in a Florida jail facing multiple felony counts following an ugly situation involving his wife and her alleged boyfriend and an alleged handgun. The UFC’s Dana White announced that Silva would never fight in the Octagon again.
Silva’s attorney Scott Saul has released a statement to the Brazilian news outlet Globo and BE’s own Fernando Arbex has translated it:
“There is a big difference in how the prosecution accused him and the way he was arrested. Thiago was arrested on two attempted assault with a risk of death, but when we went to court, the judge held that there wasn’t sufficient evidence to support such accusations. He was arrested, the case has not even received a number and what really needs to happen now is that the State Attorney must review the case and decide what are the formal charges”
“So far it is a claim, Thiago was not guilty of anything. He was not even officially accused of anything. The version that is in the media was given by the police report. To explain how it works in Florida, the attorney will take around 30 days to render a decision. So that’s the problem now. I must do what I can to convince the prosecutor that, independent of the police recorded in the bulletin, things did not happen exactly like that. It may be that what Thiago’s wife said has been taken out of context, I don’t know. There were many people there at the time, many police, but they didn’t witness anything serious”.
“When I arrived, the police had blocked four blocks, there were helicopters, SWAT teams wearing camouflage uniforms and they would not give us access to the spot. Eventually, I ended up staying in the same place where the wife of Pablo was with two of her friends and the police though, for some reason, needed to use these people in some sort of hostage negotiation. None of it was true, not even the police report. He didn’t evade the police, not threatened the police or anything. He didn’t resist on the arrest. Even in the police report, the only thing they said is that it was up to them, and remember that he was very drunk when he was arrested, then Thiago was accused of showing his middle finger and getting back into the apartment. And I think what happened is that he was drunk and the cops were knocking on the door, he was asleep, opened the door to the police and surrendered. There was no reason for this, they did not need to have him beaten and even when we went to trial, they kept saying that Thiago was a professional fighter, but at any time he tried to use violence to resist on the arrest. Had he fought against someone, it would be different, but the fact that he is a professional athlete is not related to anything. It’s not because he is fighter he is more dangerous than someone who is not.”
“I can not comment on that part (his UFC release), but I can say that he knows he will not fight in March, on behalf of a criminal case. However, I imagine that if we prove his innocence, the UFC will probably reconsider that position”
Bloody Elbow will keep you updated on this unfortunate situation as it develops.
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