Manager: Anderson Silva didn't mean to hurt training partner in video

Anderson Silva’s co-manager said a video that appears to show the former UFC middleweight champion knocking out a training partner isn’t as bad as it looks.

“Anderson wouldn’t ever do that, especially to a guy he cares so much about,” Jorge Guimaraes today told MMAjunkie.

Guimaraes said he wasn’t present when the video was shot in Rio de Janeiro, where Silva’s trained in preparation for his long-awaited return to the UFC’s octagon at UFC 183 later this month. But the fighter rep said he consulted several of Silva’s other training partners, who denied the one partner was mistreated.

“He wasn’t knocked out at all,” Guimaraes said. “(Silva) was just hitting him. He’s getting ready for his fight.”

In the brief video (available via Vine), which reportedly aired on Brazilian TV channel Globo and Guimaraes said was filmed “about three weeks ago,” Silva is seen landing a knee that knocks a training partner to the mat. Silva then kneels over the fighter and punches him despite the training partner appearing to be defenseless.

Guimaraes identified the training partner as Team Nogueira welterweight Douglas Moura, whom he said has helped Silva prepare for fights. In turn, Silva has tried to help along Moura’s career.

Silva (33-6 MMA, 16-2 UFC) was unavailable for comment. The ex-champ is just weeks away from a pay-per-view headliner opposite onetime UFC welterweight title challenger Nick Diaz (26-9 MMA, 7-6 UFC) at UFC 183, which takes place Jan. 31 at Las Vegas’ MGM Grand Garden Arena.

Silva’s return comes 13 months after he suffered a horrific broken leg at UFC 168 while attempting to re-capture the belt from current titleholder Chris Weidman.

Guimaraes said he’d witnessed previous Silva sparring sessions and acknowledged the fighter could be training more intensely than usual. But he stressed Silva wouldn’t intentionally hurt a training partner. He said he’d recently spoken to Moura’s wife and wasn’t alerted to any problems in training camp,

“A little bit,” Guimaraes said when asked if Silva was more intense than usual for this camp. “He’s very calm, in a way, but he’s very eager to get back in the octagon.”

Asked whether that added intensity could have led to a situation such as the one caught on video, Guimares said, “Yeah, maybe. But he would never do that. It’s a sparring day. They go hard down there.”

For more on UFC 183, check out the UFC Rumors section of the site.