Yup, it's official: No Anderson Silva at UFC 212

Former longtime middleweight champion Anderson Silva is officially off the UFC 212 card.

UFC officials today made the announcement.

Silva originally was expected to co-headline the pay-per-view event, which takes place June 3 at Jeunesse Arena in Rio De Janeiro.

Silva’s initial opponent for the card, Kelvin Gastelum (13-2 MMA, 8-2 UFC), got pulled following a positive test for marijuana. Although a few fighters were willing to step up, nothing materialized, and Silva (34-8 MMA, 17-4 UFC) ultimately declared himself off the card over the weekend.

Now it’s official.

The removal comes a day after Silva criticized the handling of the situation and “The Almighty” UFC President Dana White’s treatment of the middleweight division.

Silva specifically pointed to Georges St-Pierre (25-2 MMA, 19-2 UFC) getting a shot at Michael Bisping’s (30-7 MMA, 20-7 UFC) middleweight belt; Silva said he thought Yoel Romero (12-1 MMA 8-0 UFC) was the most worthy contender. (Later in the day, White, in fact, said he was scrapping plans for Bisping vs. St-Pierre and that Romero instead will get the next shot.)

Silva, who’s No. 10 in the USA TODAY Sports/MMAjunkie MMA middleweight rankings, most recently fought in February, where he defeated Derek Brunson via unanimous decision. Since a memorable title run from 2006-2012, which included 10 consecutive title defenses (a UFC record shared by current flyweight champ Demetrious Johnson, the 42-year-old Brazilian is 1-4 with one no-contest.

Here’s today full announcement:

“Following the April 6 removal of Kelvin Gastelum from his UFC 212 bout against Anderson Silva, UFC officials attempted to find a replacement to meet Silva on June 3. However an opponent was not secured to face the former middleweight champion on short notice, prompting his removal from the card at Jeunesse Arena in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

“Due to Anderson Silva’s withdrawal, customers may request a full refund of their purchased tickets until May 18, 2017.

“To request a refund of a purchase made at the event box office or points of sale, the customer must return to the point of purchase with the original tickets. For credit card transactions, the refund will be credited to credit card statement. For debit card transactions, the refund will be credited to the account linked to the debit card used for the purchase.

“To refund a purchase made online or through the call center, the customer should access atendimento.tudus.com.br, and select the category “Cancellation” and list “UFC 212” as the subject.”

For more on UFC 212, check out the UFC Rumors section of the site.