After back-and-forth posturing between middleweight legend Anderson Silva and UFC President Dana White over the former’s lack of opponent for UFC 212 on June 3, the Brazilian has taken matters into his own hands and has removed himself from the event entirely.
Silva (34-8), who was originally scheduled to face Kelvin Gastelum on the Rio de Janeiro card, was left without an opponent when the American was dropped from the event after failing a drugs test for marijuana metabolites. Despite being promised a new opponent and having took part in the UFC 212 official press conference (where he faced off with himself), Silva has been far from satisfied with the way the UFC has handled the situation since, appearing on “The MMA Hour” last week to demand a fight with Yoel Romero for an interim middleweight title, threatening to retire if his wishes were not met.
White’s response was typical of his bullish personality and he would attempt to call Silva’s bluff saying that if retirement was something that Silva was considering then “maybe he should retire.” It seems this may have now forced the former middleweight champion’s hand.
During a live Instagram interview via Brazilian website UOL, which is currently unavailable to view, Silva admitted that he would be giving up his place on the June card and was “disassembling” his camp. While being vague about the details, it was clear “The Spider” feels he is not being treated in the manner he expects from the UFC and recently said he felt “disrespected” by the organisation.
“I really want to fight in Brazil, my country, but it’s not going to happen,” said the 42-year-old. “I want to apologise for this. I really wanted to fight here, but it didn’t happen. I think I was hurt in this but that’s it.”
Despite the Brazilian’s admission that he will no longer be on the card, no official statement has yet been released by the UFC with Silva still featuring on their UFC 212 official page with his opponent still set as “to be determined”. MMAJunkie have since reported that, after contacting the promotion, a UFC official has said that as far as they are aware, nothing is official.
Considered one of “The Greatest of All-Time” to compete in the sport of MMA, Silva’s reputation has taken a few blows in recent years as he continues to compete despite becoming a shadow of his former self. Since 2012, the Brazilian as went 1-4 and only halted his losing streak thanks to a contentious unanimous decision victory over Derek Brunson at UFC 208.
