UFC issues statement on Anderson Silva

The UFC has officially taken Anderson Silva off of the UFC 212 card on June 3^rd.  In an interview with The MMA Hour last week, Silva expressed his frustrations with the UFC and Dana White for not making an interim title fight for the middleweight title.

Silva, who spoke in English despite a translator on the line, used a lot of expletives when talking about the issues in waiting for a title shot.  “Tired,” is how he explained his feeling about the UFC.

Silva talked about losing his contract with Nike due to the Reebok deal.  He also said that he may be done with his fighting career if he doesn’t get an interim title fight with Yoel Romero.

A portion of the May 11^th statement with the UFC reads:

“Following the April 6 removal of Kelvin Gastelum from his UFC 212 bout against Anderson Silva, UFC officials attempted to find a replacement to meet Silva on June 3.  However an opponent was not secured to face the former middleweight champion on short notice, prompting his removal from the card at Jeunesse Arena in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

Due to Anderson Silva’s withdrawal, customers may request a full refund of their purchased tickets until May 18, 2017.

To request a refund of a purchase made at the event box office or points of sale, the customer must return to the point of purchase with the original tickets. For credit card transactions, the refund will be credited to credit card statement. For debit card transactions, the refund will be credited to the account linked to the debit card used for the purchase.

Payout Perspective:

With the announcement that Romero will now take on Bisping, we could see the end of the career of Anderson Silva if he really meant that he would not come back to the UFC.  Silva filled in last minute against Daniel Cormier at UFC 200 which only can be seen as a favor for the company.  And now, Silva is angered for not being given a fight against Romero for an interim title.  With a Bisping-Romero fight seemingly a go, I am not sure Silva will come back unless he is appeased by the UFC.  One might surmise the treatment of Silva may be part of the new ownership.