While Anderson Silva's mixed martial arts (MMA) career is currently in flux thanks to a couple failed drug tests, the former Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) Middleweight champion is setting his sights on other endeavors, including the 2016 Olympic Games.
Seriously.
Silva, according to a report from MMA Junkie, has his heart set on being an Olympian next year when the games touch down in Rio de Janeiro from Aug. 5 to 21 as a member of Brazil's Taekwondo team.
The Brazilian Taekwondo Federation released Silva's request to compete in the 2016 games:
"Everyone knows that for a high performance athlete, the Olympic games are the dream of every athlete, and so it would be no different with me. When I won the title of ambassador of the sport by president Carlos Fernandes, this feeling started to get even stronger and, in my country, the Olympic spirit made me very motivated. It will be a great pleasure to be part of this team and that gold has a serious institution, led by president Carlos Fernandes ... along with his entire team. So I leave here registered my desire to represent Taekwondo and Brazil in Rio 2016 Olympic Games with all my esteem, strength and honor."
For the time being, Silva has bigger fish to fry -- he has to explain how he failed multiple drug tests for his "super fight" against Nick Diaz, which saw him defeat the Stockton slugger after five rounds of action at UFC 183 earlier this year.
It was an emotional comeback victory that was ultimately overturned to a "No Contest."
Once he gets that in his rear-view mirror, he still has to somehow convince Dana White and Co. to allow him to compete at the Olympics if he manages to make the national team. And as we've seen in the past, ZUFFA likes to play hardball when it comes to having its athletes dabble in other combat sports.
And thanks to this one-of-a-kind contract, UFC still has the rights on Silva.
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