Anderson Silva Reacts To UFC Disrespecting Him
Former UFC middleweight champion Anderson ‘The Spider’ Silva is not too happy with the UFC right now.
When UFC 200’s main event fell out just two days away form the card after Jon Jones was flagged by the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) and pulled from his highly-anticipated clash with Daniel Cormier to unify the light heavyweight titles, Silva would step in to save the card and take on Cormier at the 205-pound weight class.
During a recent interview with UOL Esporte, Silva stated that he has yet to even receive a ‘thank you’ from UFC President Dana White for stepping in for Jones:
“I haven’t even received a ‘thank you’ from Dana (White), or Lorenzo (Fertitta) after the last fight,” Silva said. “Of course, I was the one who wanted to fight, who took the bout, but I know my worth, my importance.
“I was very disappointed with the lack of respect that the UFC has been treating the Brazilian athletes with. I’m an athlete who took the sport to another level. I don’t get, or have got, people’s due respect. This has made me very upset, sad, and disappointed with the UFC.”
Silva recently fought current UFC champion Michael Bisping in a main event clash at UFC Fight Night 84 this past February, and a controversial flying knee at the end of the third round that dropped Bisping made ‘The Spider’ thought he had won the fight.
This was not the case, however, as Silva walked away from Bisping after landing the strike and did not attempt to finish the fight, not to mention referee Herb Dean did not signal for the finish.
Silva believes he won that fight, and also revealed that the UFC offered him to be on standby incase anything happens to Dan Henderson of Bisping ahead of their title clash at UFC 204 this weekend.
UFC executives did not offer this opportunity to Silva directly, but instead offered it to the Brazilian star through his representatives, another action making Silva feel disrespected even more:
“I didn’t talk to them or anyone else,” he said of UFC executives. “They even offered me to be on standby in case something happened to (Michael) Bisping or (Dan) Henderson (before Saturday’s UFC 204 in England). But the most absurd thing is how it got to me. They didn’t even talk to me – my representatives passed it along.
“I’m not a message guy. After everything I’ve done, I have to be on standby for a fight I won? I thought it was a little unpleasant.”
Silva believes he has done things inside the Octagon that nobody else has been able to replicate, and also reminded the mixed martial arts community that UFC President Dana White also at one point referred to him as the pound-for-pound greatest fighter in the world.
After all the great things Silva has done for the sport of MMA and for the UFC itself, he is very disappointed with the treatment he has received as of late:
“I will say it again: I’m very disappointed with the way they’ve been treating me, I’m very saddened by all of this,” he said. “I wasn’t the one who said I was the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world, Dana White said it. Maybe he said it to promote his event, or because he really felt that way. We’ll never know the truth.
“Fact is that everything I’ve done, no one else was able to do again. I don’t mean to be conceited, arrogant, think I’m the best, but what I set out to do this entire time was to show I was different than the others. And this is not my opinion, it’s everyone’s.”
Silva has yet to be booked in a bout as of this writing, but given the things that ‘The Spider’ has said now it would be a surprise if we see him compete any time soon before mending the relationship between him and promotion.
