A bad day for Dana White.
The business side of the UFC seems to become murkier by the day and with MMA great Anderson Silva’s latest comments, Dana White’s reputation could take another blow.
After being one of the all-time greats, it’s undeniable that Silva had done everything he could to earn his respect but when it came to his later years where he seemed to lose his edge, he felt White was quick to dismiss and speak ill of him.
“When I was done in UFC, everybody — especially Dana White — said, ‘Oh, Anderson can’t fight anymore,” revealed Silva in a recent interview with SportsNaut.
“ARE YOU KIDDING ME!?” #OnThisDay – Anderson Silva delivered a front kick to the face 🤯 pic.twitter.com/uhevkHMz4k
— UFC (@ufc) February 5, 2021
“Nobody in the same age [group] with Anderson can fight, it’s terrible,’ and blah, blah, blah and talking a lot of sh*t about me. I feel disrespected because it doesn’t matter what happened — fight is fight. You can win, you can lose.
“When you make a success of [MMA], the one thing you need to do for your fighters is [give] respect. In that, I feel no respect. But I don’t care because when I stop fighting, I’m gonna stop fighting because I say I’m gonna stop it.
“Nobody can say for me I [should] stop. No one can say for [anybody] you need to stop now. Nobody. I’ll stop when I say I’m done.”
A serious accusation
The incident isn’t specific to Silva, however, and he even claims that the UFC can try and ruin a fighter’s career once they’re finished.
Thank you, @SpiderAnderson. #UFCVegas12 pic.twitter.com/DRZTQgN6zg
— UFC (@ufc) November 1, 2020
“That’s the problem for the people in this sport, especially UFC because UFC doesn’t respect the legacy that fighters have.
“They try to use you and kick you out and when you’re out, they try to destroy your career [so] you don’t fight anywhere. This happened [to] a lot of fighters. People don’t think about that.
While Silva admits that it wasn’t all bad he does think it’s important to let the truth out so the big issues of the UFC can be tackled.
“I had a good time in UFC, and bad times too. The bad time for me is the experience I have behind the scenes. But inside the cage, inside the fight, I do my best. It’s the only time I have control. Outside I don’t have control.”
In this clip from the conversation on @Sportsnaut now, #UFC icon @SpiderAnderson talks the disrespect he felt on the way out from the promotion and UFC boss Dana White. He talks about that and much more in the full interview here: https://t.co/OYGrscObQc #UFC274 #mma #MMATwitter pic.twitter.com/Qurl0WWjJZ
— Jason Burgos (@JasonBurgosMMA) May 4, 2022
“In my fight in Mexico, I made more money than my last three fights in MMA. I don’t like to talk about the bad, and people say, ‘Oh now you’re out of UFC and you talk bad sh*t about [them]’.
“It was good for me sometimes and it was good for UFC too. It’s done it’s over. But it’s important I say that, everything I say about the situation because this is what happened to me.”
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