Evidently UFC president Dana White has no qualms with the notion of publicly ignoring a longtime acquaintance, even if that person happens to be a former UFC champ.
Apparently fed up with his attempts to resurrect his career through his fans on the social media site, White blocked former UFC heavyweight champ Tim Sylvia on Twitter on Saturday.
Lol @danawhite blocked me. I think all my fans was getting to him and didn’t want to here my name anymore, if he just listen 2 them.
— Tim Sylvia (@timsylviamma) May 10, 2014
When Sylvia, who hasn’t fought in the UFC since 2008, heard of the UFC re-signing Andrei Arlovski in late April, he began campaigning on Twitter for a return to the promotion.
Naturally, Sylvia suggested that White should sign him and place him on the UFC Fight Night 47 card in his home state of Maine in August.
Although the 38-year-old Sylvia has dropped his past three fights and hasn’t beaten a UFC vet since 2010, enough “Maine-iac” fans showed support on Twitter to force White to take action.
Roughly two months prior to the UFC’s decision to sign Arlovski, Sylvia released a video on The Underground that he hoped would thrust his name back into the limelight.
Sylvia tried to catch the attention of the company’s brass by trivializing the current state of the UFC’s stable of heavyweights.
I was in the UFC back when there was five to six shows a year. Now there are shows every three weeks, so they have to put guys in like (Christian) Morecraft, Joey Beltran, Stefan Struve; the list goes on and on. I don’t understand why any of these guys are in the UFC, and to be frankly honest, I think I knock them out in the first round. I’m ready. I can beat 80 percent of the guys in the UFC. If you don’t think I can, how about you make a push and try to get me into the UFC just to see me get my ass kicked.
But despite the efforts from Sylvia and his loyal fanbase, White has expressed no interest in reviving the career of the hard-hitting, two-time heavyweight champ.
“Tim Sylvia, I think he’s 0-3-1 in his last four fights. It’d be tough to bring him in to the UFC with [that record] outside the UFC,” White said via MMAJunkie. “He’s [Arlovski] on a win streak [and] I like him. I have a lot of respect for him and his people.”
Until the situation changes, Sylvia will have to settle for a bout in Maine with former UFC heavyweight Christian Morecraft at New England Fights XIV in September. The winner will take home the NEF heavyweight belt.
Sylvia amassed a 10-4 record in the UFC between 2002 and 2008. He defended his heavyweight strap three times in his two stints as champ and suffered a submission loss (guillotine choke) against Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira in his last bout with the promotion at UFC 81.
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