Lavigne Cleaned Up Silva at UFC 97

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Yves Lavigne saw Anderson Silva wiping the vaseline from his face on various parts of his body at UFC 97, and he wiped him down and got approval from the corner of Thales Leites before allowing the fight to continue. 

“I saw he had a little Vaseline on his chest and I wiped it from his chest and arms, as I saw him touching them as well,” Lavigne told Sherdog.com on Tuesday. 

Lavigne said he then motioned to Leites’ corner and was given a “thumbs up” of approval. 

“I took care of it, and the other corner felt OK with it,” said Lavigne. 

Vitor “Shaolin” Ribeiro, who was one of Leites’ cornermen that night, supported Lavigne’s recollection of events. 

“I remember Yves Lavigne toweled and cleaned the body,” Ribeiro said. “I don’t think [the cutman] put a lot of grease on his face and [Silva] put it on his body. I think everything was pretty fair.” 

The controversy surrounding the moment isn’t due to how much the vaseline could have help Silva against Leites. The vaseline made zero difference in that fight, because Thales Leites was severely overmatched. The controversy is happening because Silva committed the act of wiping vaseline on his body in the first place.