Anderson Silva fails USADA drug test, out of UFC Shanghai main event

Anderson Silva is in another drug-test mess.

The UFC legend has failed a USADA out-of-competition drug test and is out of his UFC Shanghai main event against Kelvin Gastelum later this month, the UFC announced Friday. The positive drug test stems from a sample collected Oct. 26.

Silva, 42, has been provisionally suspended and is now facing a full suspension from USADA, pending the adjudication and results management processes.

Silva, the former longtime UFC middleweight champion, also failed a drug test for the steroids drostanolone and androsterone in an in-competition test in relation to a fight with Nick Diaz at UFC 183 in January 2015. He was suspended one year by the Nevada Athletic Commission (NAC) for that transgression.

At the time, Silva denied he had knowingly taken any performance-enhancing drugs, telling the commission that the steroids came from a male-enhancement product from Thailand.

USADA could take into account Silva’s previous drug-test failure in deciding a sanction, despite it coming before the UFC partnered with USADA for the promotion’s anti-doping program.

In a release, the UFC said it was seeking a replacement to fight Gastelum on Nov. 25. That card is the UFC’s first in mainland China.