Former UFC fighter Antonio “Big Foot” Silva was expected to make his Taura MMA debut at Taura 11, but paperwork issues caused the fighter to be removed from the card.
The fighter blames to promotion for the absurd way that they handled things, while also revealing he plans on filing a lawsuit against Taura MMA.
“It was absurd,” Silva said to Sherdog. “They [Taura MMA] promised to pay me some advanced money in August in order to help my camp expenses and never deposited. In the week of the fight, they found out that one exam I sent in October needed to be made again, and they guaranteed there was no time left for that, which is not true. Unfortunately, the event was not professional with me. Actually, they were doing two events at the same time, one week in Brazil and the next one in USA, and didn’t have enough people to take care of bureaucracy, like exams and visas. I’m sad for that because Brazil has a lot of talent and we need more big events coming, but those guys are not professionals and I’m sure Taura will not last too long. My lawyer already asked to cancel the contract and I’m going to sue them for all money I have spent in this camp. I was sorry for [Brett] Martin, who also trained to face me, but it was not my fault. It was a total lack of respect [for] me, him and the audience.”
It didn’t take long for Silva to fight another fight, as he’ll face Chris Barnett at an Arena Fighting Championship event on December 12.
Silva says he is happy to be fighting a high level opponent like Barnett this December.
“I’m really happy to sign with that great European organization,” Silva said. “I’m going to fight against a very tough American, Chris Barnett, a guy who is coming from an impressive sequence of seven wins.”
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