Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) President Dana White says he won’t be giving into Anderson Silva’s demands for an interim middleweight title bout.
Recently, future UFC Hall of Famer Silva claimed he’d be finished with his professional mixed martial arts (MMA) career if he wasn’t given an interim title fight against Yoel Romero at UFC 212. It’s a request that White told TMZ Sports would not be granted (via MMAMania.com):
“Every time I’ve, for the last however many years, (dealt) with Anderson, it’s always interesting. (Silva) wants an interim title, obviously we’re not going to do an interim title (fight). He’s coming out publicly, and you know my philosophy on that. If you ever say the ‘R’ word, you should probably do it anyway, you know? If you’re ever considering retirement, you should probably do it.”
White went on to explain why “The Spider” won’t be getting an interim title opportunity.
“Bisping’s ready, willing and able to fight the actual No. 1 contender, who is Yoel Romero. Anderson Silva is ranked No. 7 right now. If he’s willing to take the Romero fight for June — because he was supposed to fight Kelvin Gastelum. You know, Anderson’s mad. I didn’t pull Kelvin Gastelum out. Kelvin Gastelum smoked weed, and now he got busted, and you know we’ve done everything we could to make another fight for Anderson.”
