Dana White and Anderson Silva have not been on the best of terms lately.
Silva was scheduled to meet Kelvin Gastelum in a middleweight contest at UFC 212 on pay-per-view (PPV) from “The Spider’s” native Brazil, however, after being flagged by the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) for the use of marijuana in-competition, Gastelum was removed from the bout, thus leaving Silva without a dancing partner.
The 42-year-old former 185-pound king then called for an interim middleweight title matchup with Yoel Romero as a result, given that the division was essentially on hold as the fight world awaited confirmation for the verbally agreed to bout between middleweight champ Michael Bisping and the returning Georges St-Pierre. Silva went off on UFC President Dana White and the UFC for not giving him his promised superfight against St-Pierre, and also for denying him an interim title bout after everything he has done for the promotion. Silva threatened retirement if he wasn’t given what he desired.
White responded by saying that if retirement truly was on Silva’s mind, then he probably shouldn’t be competing inside the Octagon anymore. Recently, White spoke to Jim Rome on CBS Sports Radio to discuss his relationship with Silva, and admitted that a meeting between the two is needed to hash things out (quotes via MMA Junkie):
“I have to deal with tons of different personalities and egos and lots of different things with all of the athletes that I deal with,” White said. “Anderson Silva has always been one of those guys that’s been unique to deal with – (but) never at this level. I didn’t make Kelvin Gastelum test positive for marijuana and pull out of the fight, and we tried to make other fights and get other opponents for him.
“You can’t demand a title fight or (threaten), ‘I’m going to retire.’ Especially when you know that my philosophy is this: If you even mention the word ‘retirement,’ you should probably retire. I know he’s not thrilled and happy with me. He and I need to sit down and do a face-to-face.”
Since the whole debacle between White and Silva, the title bout between Bisping and St-Pierre has been called off after the Canadian stated that he won’t be ready to fight until after October. White has announced that Romero will instead challenge for the 185-pound strap next.
Despite the back-and-forth, White said Silva is actually a ‘really nice guy’ and he plans on flying out to meet with him in California in the near future:
“At the end of the day, despite Anderson Silva going crazy on Instagram and saying all these things right now, he’s actually a really nice guy,” White said. “He’s angry right now and we need to sit down. Everything is better face-to-face, so I probably need to fly out to California and sit down to talk with him – and soon, very soon.”
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