Anderson wants an interim title fight against Yoel Romero while Bisping and GSP take their sweet time to book their fight. Anderson thinks it’s holding up the division, and he’s got a taste for that sweet gold.
Before you give him a hard time for demanding an interim title shot or else retiring, you’ve got to look at it from his point of view too.
Anderson Silva’s UFC Career
For starters, think of everything Anderson has done for the UFC over the years, and you don’t have to look any further than UFC 200 which he took on super late notice to try to save the card on paper. He was on vacation, recovering from surgery, and still went 5 rounds with the champ in a heavier weightclass.
He’s been a company man for the most part, loyal to the UFC, has some of the best finishes ever, easily in the conversation for the Top 3 ever.
Cancelled Fights
Anderson had two camps cancelled and neither were his fault, that’s money spent on training, coaches, etc and not getting paid for the fights afterwards. He’s talked about how his fans have bought tickets to see him, how he has to spend so much time away from his wife and kids, and more.
After his most recent cancelled fight, he missed out on a lot of opportunties, turned down some good offers outside of the cage to train for another fight that didn’t happen, and he’s just getting tired of it.
On top of that, he was promised that he would have first crack at GSP when Georges came back from retirement.
He didn’t talk any trash about the Reebok deal, even thought it lost him millions in sponsorship money, he’s just been fighting, being a good representative for the sport, great to fans, and on top of it all… Yoel Romero had earned the next title shot before GSP cut in line (No diss to GSP, he’s a legend too. Why wouldn’t he take a title shot if it was offered?) So to have Anderson vs Yoel as an eliminator to face the winner of GSP and Bisping makes sense, although in a perfect world it would have been Bisping vs Romero and the winner of GSP vs Anderson getting the next title shot.
What’s next?
What do you think? Do you have a problem with Anderson saying he’ll walk away from the sport if the UFC doesn’t set up an interim title for him vs Yoel Romero?
A few years ago, this would have sounded crazy, but the UFC has already set a precedent and really lowered the bar on interim titles, so I say they make Anderson happy.
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