Anderson Silva will meet a fighter that would eerily remind the Brazilian of himself in his heyday. Silva has always thrived on counter-striking, hand-eye co-ordination and fast twitches, often sending his opponents scrambling to the mat with one of his patented counter-jabs or front kicks. At UFC 234, he will face Israel Adesanya, who many consider to be Anderson Silva’s rightful heir.

Both the fighters have shown a lot of respect to each other. After all, Anderson Silva is a legend in the sport of MMA, and no one would dare disrespect the Brazilian icon, especially when they’re still clawing their way into the top 5 rankings.

However, Adesanya’s coach, Eugene Bareman has now shouldered the responsibility of throwing shade at Anderson Silva. During a recent interview with Submission Radio in Austalia, Eugene called Silva the “Lance Armstrong of MMA”!

“He’s the Lance Armstrong of MMA,” Bareman told Submission Radio. “For me, he cheated. And I’m a very stand up guy. MMA fans, for one or another reasons, they’re not the same as cycling fans. MMA fans forget quickly when someone cheats. But I’m not like that. If you do something wrong and it’s proven and factual, then I hold that against him about it. I don’t hold it against you like I wanna beat you up, I just want nothing to do with you.”

Anderson Silva got busted for banned substances twice, the first following his fight with Nick Diaz. Silva, who suffered a gory leg break during his second fight with Chris Weidman, was popped in 2015, and was suspended for a year following the failed drug test. Anderson was once again popped in 2017, this time for two banned substances, methyltestosterone and a diuretic, and faced yet another one-year suspension.

“He sits nowhere, as far as I’m concerned”, Bareman continued, making a case for Silva to be eliminated from the ‘GOAT’ discussion. “He sits the same place as Lance Armstrong sits, but it’s a difference sport, different community. I completely dismiss him. I find it – I think weird is the best way to describe it – I find it weird that people talk of him in that manner. You can’t cheat in this sport, or else it brings everything you did into complete disrepute, like Lance Armstrong. How are two people who are basically guilty of the same thing treated so differently in the sporting world. Well, it’s because of the different responses that each of those fanbases give to that crime.”