Jose Aldo is definitely not the only fighter that feels off put with his treatment by the UFC officials. Anderson Silva told Brazilian website UOL:
“Man, it’s complicated to talk about it. I didn’t even get a ‘thank you’ from Dana or Lorenzo after my last fight. I was the one who wanted to fight, of course, I took the fight, but I know what I’m worth, my importance.”
Silva famously stepped in following Jones’ failed doping test ahead of jubilant UFC 200 card.
“I was really disappointed with the lack of respect from the UFC towards Brazilian athletes. I’m an athlete who took the sport to another level. I don’t get or ever got the respect from people. That made me really upset, sad and disappointed with the UFC.”
Silva’s attitudes mirror Jose Aldo’s who recently looked into being released from his contract because he wouldn’t be given the immediate chance to regain the featherweight belt.
Silva’s indignation comes after it came to light that he wasn’t so much asked, as told to be at the ready should Michael Bisping or Dan Henderson have to drop out of their UFC 204 headlining bout.
“It’s more absurd how that (offer) came. They didn’t even talk to me,” recounted Silva. “My representatives came as a messenger pigeon. I’m not the type of guy to get messages. After everything I’ve done, I still have to stand by and wait for a fight I won? I found it a little unpleasant.”
“I will say it again: I’m really disappointed with the way they have treated me, very upset with all that. I was not the one who said I was the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world, Dana said that. Maybe he said that to promote the event or because he really thought that. We will never know the truth,” he continued.
“The fact is that everything I’ve done, no one else could do. I don’t want to be cocky or arrogant or think I’m the best, but what I’ve tried to do all those years was to show I was different from the others. And that’s not my opinion, but everyone’s.”
