Former UFC middleweight champion Anderson Silva has competed in the UFC for the final time at UFC Vegas 12 and UFC President Dana White is upset with himself after the event.
The reason that White is upset is that he believes that he shouldn’t have let Silva fight in the first place.
“He’s got one [fight left on his contract] and we had a deal. When he signed this contract, we had a deal that this would be his last fight,” White said at the UFC Vegas 12 post fight press conference (via Damon Martin of MMA Fighting). “Let me put it to you this way, this week he came out and said in an interview — and I don’t know, I don’t trust half these f**king guys in the media and how they set up questions and what they say and everything else — but all I can tell you is what I read and I know what I usually read is f**king bullsh*t so let me start here. That it used to be like a family when Lorenzo [Fertitta] was here and all that kind of stuff. We all miss Lorenzo. I will always admit that Lorenzo was the gentler, kinder side of the UFC but I’ve done nothing but be good to Anderson Silva. Tonight, I don’t feel good about myself that I let Anderson Silva fight this last fight. We’ve treated Anderson with nothing but respect and if you guys knew what Anderson Silva gets paid to fight, you’d sh*t your f**king pants. I think that we’ve treated him like family. I shouldn’t have let him fight this fight tonight.”
Silva’s run with the UFC will end on a sour note, as the fighter won just one of his last nine fights in the promotion.
White would go as far as to say that Silva should never fight again, whether in the UFC or elsewhere.
“I made a big mistake,” White said. “I shouldn’t have let him fight this fight tonight but out of respect to him, he’s a legend of this sport and a legend of this company, I did something that I disagreed with. I knew I was right and tonight proved I was right. Anderson Silva should never fight again.”
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