'Disappointed' Silva was asked to be on standby as potential UFC 204 fill-in
The list of disgruntled UFC fighters just keeps getting longer, and the latest addition is middleweight luminary Anderson Silva.
In a recent interview with Brazilian publication UOL, "The Spider" revealed UFC brass told him to be ready to fill in for Michael Bisping or Dan Henderson should injury befall either ahead of their middleweight title fight at UFC 204 on Saturday. The Brazilian was not happy with how the directive was relayed.
"I didn’t talk to them or anyone after my last fight. They even offered me to stay in standby in case something happened with Bisping or Henderson," Silva said, according to MMAFighting's Guilherme Cruz. "It’s more absurd how that (offer) came. They didn’t even talk to me. My representatives came as a messenger pigeon. I'm not the type of guy to get messages. After everything I’ve done, I still have to stand by and wait for a fight I won? I found it a little unpleasant."
Silva's gripes go back to UFC 200, where he fought Daniel Cormier in Jon Jones' stead on just two days notice after "Bones" had been flagged for a doping violation. The way the former champ sees it, the promotion's bigwigs showed a lack of gratitude for his coming through in a pinch.
"Man, it’s complicated to talk about it. I didn’t even get a ‘thank you’ from Dana (White) or Lorenzo (Fertitta) after my last fight. I was the one who wanted to fight, of course, I took the fight, but I know what I’m worth, my importance. I was really disappointed with the lack of respect from the UFC towards Brazilian athletes. I’m an athlete who took the sport to another level. I don’t get or ever got the respect from people. That made me really upset, sad and disappointed with the UFC."
Even though Silva - one of the sport's greatest - hasn't won in four years, he believes his record-setting achievements during his seven-year reign as middleweight champ should earn him a greater show of respect from the UFC.
"I was not the one who said I was the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world, Dana said that. Maybe he said that to promote the event or because he really thought that. We will never know the truth," Silva said. "The fact is that everything I’ve done, no one else could do. I won’t want to be cocky or arrogant or think I’m the best, but what I’ve tried to do all those years was to show I was different from the others. And that’s not my opinion, but everyone’s."