...OH, ONE MORE THING - PLEASE BOOKMARK US & VISIT DAILY!
By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief
Dana White and the UFC's decision to bring Thiago Silva back after domestic assault charges were dropped earlier this month came back to bite them this week, as Silva's estranged wife Thaysa Kamiji released a few videos showing Silva in her home while she expressed fear over what he might do to her while there.
The charges were dropped because she moved out of the country and didn't continue cooperating with Florida police, and at that point White backed up Silva's side of the story, saying he came out of the process "untainted," and assuring people he knew "a lot more" of the story than them.
That makes it all the more ridiculous in retrospect, as Kamiji opened up this week as to why she left the country, and posted yet another video, this time showing Silva agitated and actually cocking the gun he had in his hand in one of the others she posted. All of these back up her initial allegations against Silva, whom the UFC released again on Friday.
"I never lied about anything I've said since the beginning," Kamiji said in an interview with MMAFighting.com. "Justice was made... [The prosecutors] 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 (Silva's other alleged victim Pablo Popovitch), doing what I love. You have no idea how much I love this place. My husband is here for me when I need. We're very happy. Everybody knew about this job."
Kamiji was willing to move on leave things at that, but with the UFC bringing Silva back, and then him calling her a liar and denying any wrongdoing whatsoever, she decided to release the videos.
"I dropped [the restraining order] so I wouldn't have to come back to trial and risk losing my job, so I ended up helping Thiago," she said. "But I was pissed off when he decided to open his mouth. He should be thanking me, but people never change."
The new video is below:
Penick's Analysis: Just as the NFL shouldn't have needed video of the Ray Rice situation given the descriptions of the incident available, the UFC shouldn't have needed video to know that Silva wasn't in the clear. Kamiji's comments are even more damning, and each new piece of evidence against Silva make White's comments look even more awful than they were to begin with. How they could come to the defense of Silva in any capacity and bring him back into the fold is unfathomable, and then to say the release is off of "new video and audio evidence" is laughable. These videos are simply showcasing things he was already accused of doing, and he was not acquitted of wrong doing. She tried to move on with her life, only to face further backlash when Silva tried to call her a liar about all that she said happened. The UFC choosing to take his word over that of the alleged victim blew up in their face here.
DON'T GO YET... WE SUGGEST THESE MMATORCH ARTICLES, TOO!
Jamie Penick, editor-in-chief
(mmatorcheditor@gmail.com)
STAFF COLUMNISTS: Shawn Ennis - Jason Amadi
Frank Hyden - Rich Hansen
Chris Park - Matt Pelkey
Interested in joining MMATorch's writing team? Send idea for a theme to your column (for Specialist section) or area of interest (i.e. TV Reporter) along with a sample of writing to mmatorch@gmail.com.
