Imagine if Joseph Duffy had told fans to return their tickets for Paddy Holohan’s first ever UFC headliner.
There would have been absolute uproar.
Duffy was set to headline the third UFC Dublin card in October 2015, but was forced to withdraw after suffering a concussion during sparring. His bout against Dustin Poirier was postponed and, just over a year after making his promotional debut at the bottom of the prelims in the same stadium, Holohan rose to the top of the bill with his bout against Louis Smolka.
Obviously, Duffy’s situation was a little bit different to that of Anderson Silva at UFC 212. However, the Irish support their own, and even if the Donegal native had been ticked off at the organisation over the fight being scrapped, he wouldn’t have taken the limelight away from his compatriot like ‘The Spider’ attempted to do to Jose Aldo.
And he certainly wouldn’t have suggested that fans boycott the event.
The former middleweight champion sent out this Instagram post after his UFC 212 co-main event bout against Kelvin Gastelum fell through after his opponent failed a drug test for marijuana. It translates as, ‘You have every right to get your ticket money back. In fact, everyone who’s a fan of mine should do the same.’
https://www.instagram.com/p/BT4-UmwFnxS/
Silva may not be competing on the June 3 PPV in Rio, but Aldo is set to headline the show with a featherweight title unification bout against interim king Max Holloway. As he explained to FloCombat, he would never react the way Silva did and try to encourage fans too seek refunds.
“I always tried to defend the athletes that are in the beginning of their careers, the ones I thought were treated unfairly. I had a lot of problems with the UFC and I was punished many times for stepping up for other fighters. The UFC always made it clear that I should defend myself in order to grow in the organisation.”
“But, when you care less about other fighters and only think of your own gain, you show the fans who you really are, your real character. When you are doing fine, you are one kind of person. When things are going bad, you change your personality. I will never be like that, no matter what.”
After the controversy started gathering momentum, Silva made a new post to explain that he was not actually trying to convince fans not to attend the event. He was merely answering questions from his fans…
Right.
