Trading Shots: Downes and Fowlkes on Wanderlei Silva's retirement announcement

In this week’s Trading Shots, MMAjunkie columnist Ben Fowlkes and former UFC/WEC fighter Danny Downes discuss Wanderlei Silva’s retirement announcement, the criticisms he lobbed at the UFC on his way out the door, and whether he has the credibility to make even the most valid complaints heard.

Fowlkes: Pour a little out for “The Axe Murderer,” Danny. According to a video released on Friday, Wanderlei Silva is calling it a career, and it’s the UFC that’s to blame. So he says, anyway.

“Unfortunately, this organization took away my desire to fight,” Silva says in the video, according to the translation provided in the subtitles. “I can’t do this anymore. With a heavy heart, I come here today to declare I am stepping down from the ring. After today, Wanderlei Silva will not fight again. My career is over because I don’t have a stage to perform where the athletes get the proper respect.”

This comes after Silva has spent the previous eight minutes making some pretty strongly worded complaints about the UFC and about the way it treats its fighters. It’s the kind of thing that could be a really powerful message. You know, if we didn’t have to wonder whether Silva had some ulterior motives for delivering that message and shifting attention away from his other issues right about now.

What do you make of this, Danny? On one hand, it’s a legend retiring from the sport and blaming the UFC for draining him of all his passion for MMA. Or, looked at another way, it’s a guy trying to avoid responsibility for skipping out on a drug test and hoping to change the subject on his way out the door. What did you see when you watched this latest episode of the Wanderlei Silva Show?

Downes: I saw a fighter that lacks credibility, and not just because it looks like the video was shot in a Motel 6 room. I see someone who claims he’s going to “speak the truth,” yet hasn’t been doing that very much recently. That doesn’t make everything he’s saying invalid, but it should give us pause. According to Silva, he’s the victim of a smear campaign. He’s being unfairly targeted and he must leave MMA before his good name is tarnished further.

Does Silva strike you as a sympathetic victim? When he talks about not being paid enough, we know what the response will be. Wanderlei made more money than the vast majority of fighters. He also says that the UFC was pushing him to fight too often. Let’s look at his last five years.

2013 – one fight
2012 – one fight
2011 – two fights
2010 – one fight
2009 – one fight

If math isn’t one of your strong suits, that means that he’s had six fights in the last five years of competition. Yes, training camps and everything that goes along with them are taxing, but I’m not sure Silva can make the argument that he’s been overworked by the UFC. He’s 38 years old, so it makes sense that he needs more time in between events to recover, but you also need time to cycle off performance-enhancing drugs. Fighters need a greater voice in the MMA landscape. The balance of power is clearly not in their favor. But is Wanderlei Silva the guy you want defending you?

Fowlkes: If I’m in a bar fight, sure, then I’d want Wandy by my side. Dude has a skull tattoo. People tend to give you some space when you have a skull tattoo. If I’m in a debate about labor issues and athlete compensation, however, maybe I’d choose another ally.

You make a good point about his own inactivity in recent years. If I wanted to be a jerk about it I guess I could point out that he spent a solid chunk of this past year doing the Brazilian “Ultimate Fighter” opposite Chael Sonnen, but then we’d still come back to the surprise drug test he ran away from, the repercussions of which he’s still sorting out with the Nevada State Athletic Commission.

But I guess what I’m asking here is, does the messenger spoil the message? Silva spent a lot of time in his video talking about how other fighters are treated. For instance, he mentions former UFC bantamweight champ Renan Barao, who had to fight “three times in six months,” according to Silva. (He seems to be including the rematch with T.J. Dillashaw, which Barao failed to make weight for, but OK.) Silva blames that pace for Barao losing his title (very generous of him), then for his collapse during the weight cut.

“What did the promoters do?” Silva asks. “They bashed him and mocked him. They were all proud to keep saying that Barao’s going home without a dime. Is that the way to treat an athlete? Does anyone think about what he endured to try to step in there?”

Whether we think Silva is the ideal spokesman at the ideal time, does he not have a point here? We all saw how quickly Barao went from the pound-for-pound “monster” to the kid being scolded by Joe Rogan on TV. I think we also know more or less what the UFC will have to say about Silva now that he’s put this video out. He seems to know it too, as evidenced by his reference to the UFC’s attempts to “turn the public against us.”

“What is left for us?” Silva says. “To end our careers or get dumped and be crushed by the media.”

As much as I think Silva is almost entirely responsible for his own problems at this point in his career, I can’t say that he’s totally wrong about the brutal efficiency with which the UFC machine turns on disgruntled fighters. Don’t you think there are some fighters out there who, while they might not think Silva is the best guy to be making the case right now, ended up nodding their heads at some of his remarks?

Downes: I know a lot of fighters who agree with his remarks. They’d never say it publicly, but privately they’d nod their heads. Logically speaking, it’s true that the messenger shouldn’t matter. That’s not how things work, though. Think of a criminal trial. Whenever there’s someone giving testimony, what does the opposing lawyer try to do? That’s right, discredit the witness. Now, the witness’ testimony could be 100 percent accurate and truthful, but credibility matters. If you can’t trust that person, it doesn’t matter how legitimate their claims are.

Silva tells us, “I am here to say the truth and point out what is wrong!” That sounds nice and I fully support him. When that’s your platform, however, you have to apply that same hunger and thirst for justice to your own life. By ignoring the cloud hanging over his departure from MMA, his real ethos is, “The lies and misdirection stop now (well, except for the ones that have accompanied my last couple years as a professional fighter).” Again, his claim can be totally correct, but if he’s perceived as a hypocrite, his words lose their power.

Silva did make some strong points with regards to the Barao situation. As a former fighter, I agree with a lot of it. It sounds like you even agree with with some of the points. How do you feel when the tables are reversed, though? The only people that turn on fighters quicker than the “UFC machine” are fans and media. Everything that Silva said about how the UFC treated Barao can be flipped to the other side. Say Silva did take that fight and looked terrible. Would the next day’s Ben Fowlkes piece have read, “Hey guys, lets give Wandy a break. He worked really hard”? When you’re watching NFL games on Sunday and your team’s quarterback throws an interception, do you say, “It’s all right. I can’t imagine what type of stress he’s under. It’s just a game after all!”

It doesn’t matter if you’re running an Applebee’s or the UFC, being in management means you have to be the bad guy sometimes. If an employee shows up late for work, you have to discipline him. I hope Dann Stupp is as concerned about the working man as you are. I think I’ll ask for a raise and paid vacation. Why not? Let’s give everybody what they want even if they underperform!

Fowlkes: Man, I don’t even want to think about what it looks like when an Applebee’s underperforms. But you raise a good point. Media and fans are not known for being especially merciful after bad performances from fighters. It’s good for us all to be reminded every once in a while that this sport is really, really difficult, and the pressure is pretty intense. It’s more intense than what NFL quarterbacks face, I’d argue, because those guys get another chance to prove themselves every week. A fighter might only get a few chances a year, and usually not for too many years, and always for far less money. So yeah, we should remember that, even if no one wants to write or read articles that say, “Well, everyone tried their best on Saturday night.”

Still, I’m not sure you can compare media treatment of fighters to the UFC’s treatment of fighters. Those are two very different relationships. The media’s job is to call it like we see it without bias or preference. The UFC is in a business relationship with the fighters. It’s paying them money in the hopes of making even more money from their services. It must have some degree of responsibility for the things fighters must endure in order to fulfill their end of that bargain, but exactly what that looks like or where it ends is something that still seems unclear. Silva claims that the UFC is making “rivers” of money on the blood of fighters. Is that true? If it is, how much of that river finds its way into the fighter pay pool? These are all issues worth discussing.

The problem is, few fighters seem willing to speak out when they think the deal is working in their favor. When they’re under the wing of the dragon, cozy and warm, they don’t want to do or say anything that might get them devoured. It’s only when they’ve been forced out in the cold, as Silva has, thanks to his own mistakes, that they develop this sudden passion for fairness. By then, who’s listening to them? As you pointed out, once they’ve discredited themselves, even valid points ring hollow.

With the UFC 178 fight week coming up, I’m sure UFC President Dana White will address these remarks in the usual fashion, telling us exactly how much Silva made and how little he did for that money, and I’m sure some people will come away convinced that the UFC is basically a charity for underprivileged Wanderleis. But if we admit that there’s some message worth hearing here, even if we don’t think Silva’s the messenger with the credibility to deliver it, aren’t we just waiting for someone different to say the same things?

Downes: Fighters definitely need to speak out about these issues. They have a lot of complaints (some valid, others not), but they never say anything. Partly because they don’t want to anger UFC management, but a major factor is that they’re selfish. They’ll be the good soldier, spend their post-fight speech thanking Dana White and the Fertittas for “making their dreams come true,” and let somebody else take the heat. It reminds me a lot of one of the few times fighter compensation was actually discussed. Dana White said that he could pay the undercard fighters a bit more, but that would result in the elimination of performance bonuses. Even if we admitted that wasn’t a false dichotomy, how did fighters respond? They all came out pleading with the UFC to keep the post-fight bonuses. The people spoke, and the UFC honored their request.

Fighters are waiting for other people to fight their battles for them. The problem with the people that have taken up the cause, though, is that they all sound like jilted lovers. Ben Askren hasn’t been quiet about his issues with Dana White, but even your buddies in the so-called media shout him down. Askren wasn’t signed by the UFC and while he’s very happy with his current situation, what would he be doing if he was getting some of that sweet, sweet river money? Do Myles Jury or any of these young, rising fighters plan on standing outside the MGM Grand holding a sign that reads, “Pugilists of the world unite!” No. They plan on doing what they’ve always done.

If Wanderlei Silva wants to be the arbiter of truth in MMA, I look forward to his contributions to the discussion. If he only wants to use his black-and-white videos as a way to get into a PR spat with the Ultimate Fighting Championship, the only thing he’ll be contributing to is his own ego. I don’t know what to believe from Silva, but I believe him when he says, “This is not goodbye.” This is only the beginning.