Tag: joe silva

Joe Silva Says he Doesn’t Miss Excitement of Being UFC Matchmaker

Don’t count on seeing Joe Silva come out of retirement anytime soon. Silva was the glue that held everything together as the long-time Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) matchmaker. Late last year, Silva retired and was replaced by Sean Shelby and Mick Maynard. Last night (July 6), Silva was inducted in the UFC Hall of Fame. […]

Don’t count on seeing Joe Silva come out of retirement anytime soon. Silva was the glue that held everything together as the long-time Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) matchmaker. Late last year, Silva retired and was replaced by Sean Shelby and Mick Maynard. Last night (July 6), Silva was inducted in the UFC Hall of Fame. […]

Frank Mir Discusses How he Met Former UFC Matchmaker Joe Silva

Frank Mir remembers the first time he met retired Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) matchmaker Joe Silva. Mir, who ended up being a UFC heavyweight champion, didn’t know he could get paid competing in mixed martial arts (MMA). He simply trained because he was passionate about doing so. Nov. 2, 2001 was the date Mir made […]

Frank Mir remembers the first time he met retired Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) matchmaker Joe Silva. Mir, who ended up being a UFC heavyweight champion, didn’t know he could get paid competing in mixed martial arts (MMA). He simply trained because he was passionate about doing so. Nov. 2, 2001 was the date Mir made […]

UFC Settles On New Matchmaking Responsibilities In Light of Joe Silva’s Departure

joe-silva

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d_v0sJ6dl5M

While most of the information had come out weeks out, the updated details on the UFC’s new matchmaking arrangements appear to be finalized according to MMAFighting. Previously, Joe Silva was Senior Vice President of Talent Relations with Sean Shelby as Vice President of Talent Relations. With Silva retiring at the end of the year, Shelby is getting his old title, while Legacy FC promoter Mick Maynard will take over Shelby’s old position.

In addition, the weight class assignments are changing. Silva booked everything from lightweight on up to heavyweight, while Shelby booked featherweight on down, including the women’s divisions. This was a natural progression, as Shelby served as the matchmaker for WEC (home for the lighter weight classes) and Strikeforce (home of the women’s divisions) when they were bought up by the UFC. It only made sense for Shelby to continue “specializing,” so to speak, in the UFC. Now, with the new changes, instead of Maynard just  taking over Silva’s divisions or something like that, here’s what each matchmaker is in charge of:

Shelby

  • Women’s Strawweight
  • Women’s Bantamweight
  • Men’s Bantamweight
  • Featherweight
  • Lightweight
  • Welterweight

Maynard

  • Flyweight
  • Middleweight
  • Light heavyweight
  • Heavyweight

Analysis: Looking at who got what, it makes you wonder if, perhaps to adjust to the UFC workload, Maynard was deliberately given the least populous men’s divisions to start with. Shelby, on the other hand, keeps all but one of his existing divisions and not only adds two divisions, but adds to two most talent-stacked divisions on the roster.

joe-silva

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d_v0sJ6dl5M

While most of the information had come out weeks out, the updated details on the UFC’s new matchmaking arrangements appear to be finalized according to MMAFighting. Previously, Joe Silva was Senior Vice President of Talent Relations with Sean Shelby as Vice President of Talent Relations. With Silva retiring at the end of the year, Shelby is getting his old title, while Legacy FC promoter Mick Maynard will take over Shelby’s old position.

In addition, the weight class assignments are changing. Silva booked everything from lightweight on up to heavyweight, while Shelby booked featherweight on down, including the women’s divisions. This was a natural progression, as Shelby served as the matchmaker for WEC (home for the lighter weight classes) and Strikeforce (home of the women’s divisions) when they were bought up by the UFC. It only made sense for Shelby to continue “specializing,” so to speak, in the UFC. Now, with the new changes, instead of Maynard just  taking over Silva’s divisions or something like that, here’s what each matchmaker is in charge of:

Shelby

  • Women’s Strawweight
  • Women’s Bantamweight
  • Men’s Bantamweight
  • Featherweight
  • Lightweight
  • Welterweight

Maynard

  • Flyweight
  • Middleweight
  • Light heavyweight
  • Heavyweight

Analysis: Looking at who got what, it makes you wonder if, perhaps to adjust to the UFC workload, Maynard was deliberately given the least populous men’s divisions to start with. Shelby, on the other hand, keeps all but one of his existing divisions and not only adds two divisions, but adds to two most talent-stacked divisions on the roster.

Mehdi Baghdad: Egotistical Joe Silva Told Me To Fight Injured Or I Would Get Released

Following his loss to John Makdessi in July, Mehdi Baghdad was looking to redeem himself going into his booked fight with Jon Tuck at UFC Fight Night 97 in Manila, Philippines in October. However, after the bout was booked, Baghdad was forced to pull out with an abdominal hernia. Following that decision, the UFC released

The post Mehdi Baghdad: Egotistical Joe Silva Told Me To Fight Injured Or I Would Get Released appeared first on LowKick MMA.

Following his loss to John Makdessi in July, Mehdi Baghdad was looking to redeem himself going into his booked fight with Jon Tuck at UFC Fight Night 97 in Manila, Philippines in October. However, after the bout was booked, Baghdad was forced to pull out with an abdominal hernia. Following that decision, the UFC released him.

“I was in emergency the night before I gave the bad news that I had to pull out,” Baghdad told BloodyElbow.com’s The MMA Circus. “I called my manager, my manager called Joe Silva. And Joe Silva just answered back like, ‘You need to pull out? We cut you.’ And my manager said, ‘Come on, man, you can’t do that! The doctor said that he has to do surgery; he can’t fight. And then he forced himself to fight? He can’t! He has to do surgery.’ So my manager let me know. ‘They need you to go fight, or you are fired.’”

After he was released from the largest MMA promotion in the world, Baghdad had a life-changing decision to make, and it wasn’t easy.

“So I said, ‘So let me choose in my head. I’m fired from UFC, or I’m f-cked up from fighting, because I can have a big problem if I fight with my hernia.’ I get the choice — my health is the first choice, I’m not going to fight with the hernia when the doctor told me I can’t. It’s not just because I’m a little bit hurt here or somewhere. I had surgery last week, he opened my abdomen. It’s not something I tried to lie, so I don’t know, I don’t understand.”

According to Baghdad, Joe Silva, longtime UFC matchmaker who’s leaving the company at the end of 2016, is very egotistical. In the past, Silva has told fighters, who were cut from the UFC, that if they won a few fights on the local scene that they could come back to the promotion. However, for Baghdad, that wasn’t the case, and he was not told that.

“I think it’s just the ego of Joe Silva,” he said. “He just said, ‘If you no get this fight, if you pull out, we fire you.’ That’s why, three weeks later, I got this letter, you fired from UFC,” he said. “It’s not about you can come back one more or two more fights, it’s not about this. He told me nothing about I come back. Sometimes, Joe Silva has to understand the fighters’ lives. We have a really hard life. I left my country 10 years ago. I left my family just for UFC. And how they treat me, it’s really disrespectful.”

Baghdad stated in this interview that he has already received offers from numerous large promotions but has yet to sign with them because he’s focused on recovering from his injury and surgery.

The post Mehdi Baghdad: Egotistical Joe Silva Told Me To Fight Injured Or I Would Get Released appeared first on LowKick MMA.

New UFC Owners Plan Massive Layoffs For Staff

The UFC’s new owners are already cleaning house in a big way. According to a report from MMAJunkie.com, talent group WME-IMG, who purchased the world’s biggest MMA promotion for a record-setting $4.2 billion in July, will lay off ‘under 15 percent’ of the company’s current staff, which adds up to somewhere in the neighborhood of

The post New UFC Owners Plan Massive Layoffs For Staff appeared first on LowKick MMA.

The UFC’s new owners are already cleaning house in a big way.

According to a report from MMAJunkie.com, talent group WME-IMG, who purchased the world’s biggest MMA promotion for a record-setting $4.2 billion in July, will lay off ‘under 15 percent’ of the company’s current staff, which adds up to somewhere in the neighborhood of 400 employees.

The figures came from a source who chose to remain anonymous considering the announcement had not been made official yet. The firings will be made in the areas of sponsorships, licensing, public relations and production, but MMA Junkie noted that WME-IMG does not plan to reduce the UFC’s already-crowded event schedule.

If indeed announced, the move will come amidst an incredible amount of heat on the UFC’s new owners, as only yesterday, legendary former welterweight champion Georges St-Pierre revealed he had terminated his UFC contract after WME-IMG had rescinded a previous offer from original owner Lorenzo Fertitta, and then failed to give him a viable fight in a timeline laid out by St-Pierre’s attorney. The promotion insists St-Pierre is still under contract and will remain that way until fulfilling his obligations.

That could certainly mean the UFC’s new ownership is off to a rocky start in the sport, as cutting corners and costs in a current climate where fighter pay and treatment is quickly becoming the most oft-discussed topic in MMA may not be the best course of action. Interim featherweight champion Jose Aldo recently asked for his release from the promotion, and longtime prominent UFC employees such as Joe Silva, Dave Sholler, and Giovanni Decker have all exited the fray quickly.

New ownership reportedly claimed that they would be at a great financial risk to “re-introduce” St-Pierre to the new UFC audience, a laughable prospect even if the fanbase has changed dramatically in the three years he has been away from fighting.

A fighters union has often been talked about and could be coming soon, and it’s also a driving force to hear huge names like St-Pierre and Aldo talk about fighter pay so openly and forcefully. But that doesn’t appear to be deterring WME-IMG from taking a cutthroat approach to cleaning house if this report proves true.

Interesting – and divisive – times are coming for the sport of MMA.

The post New UFC Owners Plan Massive Layoffs For Staff appeared first on LowKick MMA.

Video: UFC Matchmakers Break Down UFC 204 Fights In Latest “Watch List”

https://youtu.be/X5jMAiGB8LM

On Tuesday, UFC added the “Watch List” video as “Fight Week” for Saturday’s UFC 204 pay-per-view continues.

Featured above is the complete UFC 204: Watch List – Bisping vs. Henderson 2 video for this weekend’s pay-per…

anik-joe-silva

https://youtu.be/X5jMAiGB8LM

On Tuesday, UFC added the “Watch List” video as “Fight Week” for Saturday’s UFC 204 pay-per-view continues.

Featured above is the complete UFC 204: Watch List – Bisping vs. Henderson 2 video for this weekend’s pay-per-view in England.

In the UFC 204 main event, UFC Middleweight Champion Michael Bisping defends his title for the first time against former rival Dan Henderson in a rematch of their epic first encounter at UFC 100, which Hendo won via vicious knockout.

Watch above as UFC commentator is joined by UFC matchmakers Joe Silva and Sean Shelby to break down the top matches scheduled for Saturday.

UFC 204: Bisping vs. Henderson 2 takes place this Saturday, October 8th from the O2 Arena in London, England. Join us here at MMANews.com on Saturday evening for live coverage of the UFC 204 pay-per-view!