Former UFC Middleweight Champion Anderson Silva was originally scheduled to fight Kelvin Gastelum at UFC 212, but then Gastelum was pulled from the event after a potential USADA violation.
Silva, after the promotion couldn’t secure him an appropriate opponent, demanded to fight for an interim middleweight title against Yoel Romero or he would retire. UFC President Dana White stated a short time later that Silva wouldn’t get the title shot and should probably retire.
Following all of this, the former champion announced via a live video stream on his Instagram that he wouldn’t be competing in any way at UFC 212.
“I really wanted to fight in Brazil, my country, but it’s not going to happen,” Silva said. “I want to apologize for this. I really wanted to fight here, but it didn’t happen. I think I was hurt in this, but that’s it.”
Gastelum did challenge Silva to fight him at UFC On Fox 25 in New York, but Silva has yet to respond to that challenge.
The former middleweight champion is also under the impression that the UFC doesn’t care about his legacy as a fighter.
“I’m very disappointed,” Silva said. “The guys don’t respect my legacy, don’t respect my story in the sport. I don’t know. I’m done.”
UFC 212 takes place on Saturday, June 3 from the HSBC Arena in Rio De Janeiro, Brazil with Jose Aldo and Max Holloway headlining. Fightful is providing live coverage of the event, with a post-show podcast to follow.
