UFC rarely bend to an ultimatum from a fighter, and this time is no different.
Former UFC middleweight champion Anderson Silva called out arguably the scariest fighter in the division recently.
Frustrated over his scheduled bout against Kelvin Gastelum falling through, after the youthful contended popped for marijuana, ‘The Spider’ began gunning to fight Yoel Romero, who’s riding an eight-fight win-streak and has neaten the likes of Chris Weidman, Jacare Souza (contentious) and Derek Brunson.
Calling out the Soldier of God was an admirable move. It showed that the 42-year-old still has the desire to take on the world’s elite. However, the asterisk he added to the proposal pretty much indicated the opposite.
He handed the UFC an unreasonable ultimatum – he wants to fight Romero, it has to be for an interim strap and if they don’t comply, he’s hanging up his gloves for good.
PIC: Neil Seery's reply to a text from drug testers will brighten up an already sunny day https://t.co/lVvRu4uC7I
— SportsJOE (@SportsJOEdotie) May 7, 2017
Dana White’s calling his bluff.
The UFC president told TMZ Sports that the interim title fight simply isn’t going to happen for the legendary fighter who’s 1-4-1 NC in his last six bouts. Champion Michael Bisping is already set to face returning legend Georges St-Pierre next, and has already stated he’s willing to fight Romero.
“We will not do an interim title. No. It won’t happen. Bisping’s ready, willing and able to fight the actual No. 1 contender, who is Yoel Romero. Anderson Silva’s ranked No. 7 right now. Anderson’s mad. I didn’t pull Kelvin Gastelum out. Kelvin Gastelum smoked weed, and now he got busted, and we’ve done everything we could to make another fight for Anderson. So it’s nothing we did.”
As far as White is concerned, if Silva’s already talking about retirement, it’s probably time to pack it in.
“Every time for the last however many years, dealing with Anderson is always interesting. Obviously, he wants an interim title – obviously, we’re not going to do an interim title. He’s definitely coming out publicly (with his demands). You know my philosophy on that: If you ever say the ‘R’ word, you should probably do it, anyway. If you’re considering retirement, you should probably do it.”
Well, that backfired anyway.
