UFC suspends Johnson, cuts Silva again

The UFC announced the indefinite suspension of Anthony Johnson and the release of Thiago Silva on Friday.  Johnson’s suspension comes on a new report regarding allegations of past domestic abuse and for Silva videos were released by his wife which is purported evidence of his drug and domestic abuse issues.

Silva was re-signed by the UFC a day after charges against him related to domestic abuse were dropped after his wife was reticent to aid authorities and abruptly moved out of the country.  Silva was released Friday prior to any fight assignment after re-signing with the UFC.  The reason for the sudden release is due to two videos.  One video shows Silva carrying a gun and one in which his wife claims he was on drugs.  His wife provided the reasons for releasing the video via Bloody Elbow.

The UFC issued a brief statement on Thiago Silva:

Thiago Silva was released from his UFC contract on Feb. 7 due to his arrest by police in South Florida. The charges against Silva were dropped by the Broward County District Attorney’s office and Silva was re-signed to the UFC earlier this month. Based on new information received today in the form of video and audio evidence, Silva has been terminated from his UFC contract.

Johnson’s situation appears a little more complicated.  Blood Elbow reports that the mother of Johnson’s two children has filed a police report stemming from alleged threats and a report of domestic abuse from back in 2012.  Johnson had another domestic violence incident with another woman in 2009.

The UFC issued a brief statement on Anthony Johnson.

We are aware of the situation involving Anthony Johnson. As a result, we are suspending him indefinitely. We are using a third-party law firm to conduct a formal investigation and once we have more information, we’ll determine whether further course of action is necessary.

Payout Perspective:

The UFC’s actions on Friday can be seen as a direct reaction to what has gone on with the NFL. For Silva, it was similar to the Ray Rice incident, a video is what caused the league to take action.  Here, the Silva video caused the UFC to rethink its decision of taking him back and make the awkward decision to release him after just re-signing him.  In my opinion, the UFC should not have re-signed Silva so quickly.

As for Johnson, the news comes at a time when he had a career revival in his return to the UFC.  Even though the domestic abuse allegations occurred in 2012, the NFL’s issues have made the UFC much more aware of these problems.  In the case of Johnson, the indefinite suspension will probably last as long as the law firm investigates the situation.  If there is nothing found, I’d expect he would be back with the UFC.  If there is evidence of further abuse or a pattern of abuse, I’d expect the UFC to release Johnson again.

From a PR perspective, the UFC must be sensitive to these issues of alleged domestic violence especially with its past problems and the current issues going on with the NFL.  We could see the UFC being much stricter with its code of conduct and dismissing and/or disciplining fighters more than before.