It seems like Anderson Silva has lost his smile. The GOAT middleweight and savior of UFC 200 (as well as the guy who has the greatest highlight reel in the history of MMA) is fed up with Dana White and the new management’s way of handling business. This isn’t a new take, many UFC fighters are getting sick of the emphasis on entertainment over sport, and money fights over meritocracy, but Anderson Silva losing his cool like this is fairly unprecedented. They guy has been fully entrenched as a company man, smiling his way through media opportunities and saying how much he loves his job. That love might be lost.
On the MMA Hour, Anderson Silva spoke the best English of his life. Being pissed off does that, I guess. He went off on the Bisping/GSP fight that’s clogged the middleweight division, essentially laying waste to the talents of Jacare Souza (who recently lost while attempting to stay active despite being no. 1a in the division), Mousasi, Yoel Romero, Luke Rockhold, Weidman and on and on.
And according to Silva, the UFC said he was going to finally fight GSP, a clash he’s been angling for over the last half-decade or so (h/t The Mac Life):
“I was told I fight George for superfight when he came back. But now he fight for belt. This is perfect bullshit. I love fight. Fight is my life but it’s too much bullshit. This is the bullshit. This is no make sense. This is disrespect. I don’t know what happened to Dana White. I’m very disappoint. When I sign my last contract, Dana White and Lorenzo [Fertitta] say ‘okay, when Georges St-Pierre is back, you go to fight super fight. You and Georges St-Pierre’. I don’t know what happened, nothing happened. Georges St-Pierre is back to fight, and is back to fight for the belt. It’s terrible. This don’t make sense. I know this is a fucking business, but I’m working hard for a long time, I help the UFC a lot. I save the UFC all the time.”
It doesn’t make it any easier for Silva considering he believes he defeated Michael Bisping last year (an opinion this writer shares).
“I save the ass of UFC and Dana White all the time. I’m tired. This is bullshit. They do same to Jacare.”
Things eventually got really real: “I am working for a long time in this fucking bullshit job. I give my heart to this sport. I give my leg for this sport,” referring to his leg being shattered in his second fight against Chris Weidman.
Then, number one contender Yoel Romero jumped onto the call, to try to make a fight for UFC 212, where Silva has been left opponent-less, saying “This man is the real man. He is a real man. When I come to this sport, I come to the sport for him. If you’re not fighting Anderson Silva, then you’re not doing nothing.”
Yoel Romero likely would destroy Anderson at this point in his career, but you never know. Either way, this is now nearly a half-dozen fighters calling for an interim belt while GSP and Michael Bisping figure out when the hell they’re going to fight. Could Romero vs. Silva be lucrative enough for the interim-happy WME-IMG bigwigs to make the fight?
What a mess.
