Why. Just why.

We all know what news broke last night. As an MMA fan and supporter, it was saddening. Disappointing, even. I’ll be damned if it wasn’t totally sobering. One of our stars, our most lethal hero, one of the last mythical beings that fought in a cage for a living, was brought down to Earth with the thunderous force of a positive PED test.

Anderson Silva was one of my last bastion’s of hope that MMA could be a clean sport. His languid frame and relatively “normal” physique never made me bat an eyebrow at his possible PED usage. The Spider held a certain esteem, as an MMA fighter and as a martial artist, that made me believe he was above “the juice.” Boy, was I wrong.

The Moai Martial Arts braintrust came to a conclusion last night that every elite professional athlete has to be on something that aids them. Are they all on straight up ‘roids like Silva? Maybe not, but something is helping them push the limits of the human body.

As a 26 year old semi-adult, I shouldn’t be depressed when another adult gets caught red handed and his reputation tarnished, but I won’t lie, I’m a little down today. Anderson was a deity in MMA circles. Before last night, his legend would far outweigh any of his shortcomings. Us geezer fans of the sport would always consider him the GOAT and that Jones kid the mere second coming. When Anderson’s name would be brought up in years to come, conversations would have started:

“Remember went Silva went full-matrix on Forrest?!?! That was NUTS!”

“How about that time Silva was getting the snot wrassled out of him by Sonnen for four rounds but came up with a miracle triangle in the 5th!”

“Anderson Silva made front kicks cool again…”

These phrases will no longer spark the conversation about Anderson Silva years down the line. It will simply be:

“Anderson Silva. Yeah, just another juicehead.”

That sucks. As an MMA fan, it plain stinks to see one of our brightest stars extinguished by some PED use in his waning years. Hemingway said something along the lines of, “As you get older it is hard to have heroes, but it is sort of necessary.” Anderson Silva was a necessary hero for me. He was the fighter I would tell tall tales of 30 years down the line as I ducked into a local bar to catch UFC 300. That sadly, is no longer the case. He is just another positive test. This is why we can’t have nice things in MMA.