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Several former Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) fighters have recently taken to social media to share their not-so nice workings with ex-UFC matchmaker, Joe Silva. From being told they weren’t good enough to fight in UFC, to threats of being cut if they didn’t take a pay reduction, Silva was painted in a pretty bad light by anyone who bothered to speak up.
Former Ultimate Fighter (TUF) and UFC alum, Roland Delorme, is the latest man to speak up against Joe. In his case, Delorme explains how Silva kept him on the shelf without a fight for half a year after he turned down a fight on two weeks notice.
“December 4 I had my first fight in the UFC. After I won I asked Joe Silva if he needed me in January cause it was my birthday, my daughters first birthday and Christmas,” Roland rote on Facebook. “Plus new years and I just wanted to take rest of month off but if you need me I’ll stay in the gym.” he added.
“He (Joe Silva) said ‘I don’t need you’, I said ‘ok’. Then he calls me December 28 and offers me a fight in two weeks. I said no I couldn’t even make the weight if i wanted to and we already had this talk. So cause I said no they put me on the shelf for six months, and waited till I was starving and broke before offering a fight on two weeks notice against a killer. That’s how UFC does business. Your just cattle to them.”
Silva retired from the promotion in 2016 a very rich man, according to UFC president Dana White, after the promotion was sold to WME | IMG earlier this year for a whopping $4.2 billion. As a result Sean Shelby and Mick Maynard have taken overt matchmaking duties.
Still, while Silva is no longer associated with UFC, the promotion has had a rough go as of late, as many fighters have not only been bashing its past matchmaking process, but fighter pay, which is a battle that doesn’t seem to have an end in sight.
But, if you aren’t willing to roll with what UFC is doing, you can always “get off the fucking bus.”