It’s fully within Wanderlei Silva’s rights to pick up his ball and go home, but the UFC had better not catch him playing on someone else’s court.
The MMA legend shocked the world in September by officially announcing his retirement from fighting in an anti-UFC YouTube video. According to Silva, the UFC consistently underpaying and mistreating athletes took away his desire to compete.
But MMA fans have become all too aware of typical knee-jerk reactions that lead to “retirement” talk.
Less than two months after going viral, Silva had reportedly agreed to a fight with longtime rival Chael Sonnen at an XFC event in Brazil, per Brent Brookhouse BloodyElbow.com. Although Sonnen hadn’t accepted the fight, it would appear that the UFC caught wind of Silva’s bout agreement and nipped it in the bud.
Obviously, the former Pride middleweight champ wasn’t very happy about this. He took aim at UFC President Dana White for utilizing “slavery” tactics and preventing him from making a living (h/t MMAFighting.com reporter Guilherme Cruz).
Escravidão agora????? Como assim,nao posso trabalhar entao Dana? Vc nao manda em mim,luto onde eu quiser!O Q é seu ta guardado ja chega!
— Wanderlei Silva (@wandfc) November 3, 2014
Wanderlei Silva just tweeted this: “Slavery now? So I can’t work, Dana? You’re not the boss of me, I can fight wherever I want.”
— Guilherme Cruz (@guicruzzz) November 3, 2014
Unfortunately for Silva, simply quitting the UFC will not make a signed contract null and void. He could always ask to be released from the promotion, but it would make little sense from a business perspective for the UFC to cut its losses and look the other way.
Even if this feud ends up in a court of law, it will likely still end in the UFC’s favor and waste precious time on Silva’s already dwindling career.
Perhaps Silva should just bite the bullet, finish his UFC contract and then sign elsewhere.
Jordy McElroy is a featured columnist for Bleacher Report. He is also the MMA writer for Rocktagon.
