Anderson Silva “very upset, sad, and disappointed” with UFC

When it was revealed that just 48 hours before UFC 200, interim light heavyweight champion Jon Jones would be unable to fight Daniel Cormier for the undisputed light heavyweight championship due to a failed out-of-competition drug test the month prior, former middleweight kingpin Anderson Silva stepped up to take Jones’ place. On just two days notice, Silva stepped into the Octagon on July 9th and fought Cormier in a non-title light heavyweight scrap.

Now, according to ‘The Spider’, he has never received a ‘thank you’ from UFC President Dana White, or former UFC owner Lorenzo Fertitta, who owned the promotion at the time he stepped up to fight Cormier in the biggest event in UFC history.

He spoke during an interview with UOL Esporte:

“I haven’t even received a ‘thank you’ from Dana (White), or Lorenzo (Fertitta) after the last fight,” Silva told UOL. “Of course, I was the one who wanted to fight, who took the bout, but I know my worth, my importance.

“I was very disappointed with the lack of respect that the UFC has been treating the Brazilian athletes with. I’m an athlete who took the sport to another level. I don’t get, or have got, people’s due respect. This has made me very upset, sad, and disappointed with the UFC.”

“I will say it again: I’m very disappointed with the way they’ve been treating me, I’m very saddened by all of this,” he said. “I wasn’t the one who said I was the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world, Dana White said it. Maybe he said it to promote his event, or because he really felt that way. We’ll never know the truth.

“Fact is that everything I’ve done, no one else was able to do again. I don’t mean to be conceited, arrogant, think I’m the best, but what I set out to do this entire time was to show I was different than the others. And this is not my opinion, it’s everyone’s.”

So far there has been no word yet as to when Silva will return to the Octagon. However, leading up to UFC 204, where Michael Bisping and Dan Henderson will square off for Bisping’s middleweight title on Saturday, Silva was told to stay ready in case one of the men pulls out of the fight.

With nearly 48 hours to go until fight night however, it is unlikely he will be tapped to step in.