Former UFC middleweight champion Anderson Silva doesn’t understand why UFC head Dana White has banned George St-Pierre from boxing against Oscar De La Hoya.
“I think it doesn’t make sense, especially because Georges did a lot for the sport, especially for UFC,” Anderson Silva told MMA Junkie during a Wednesday media event. “Why you hold the guy? This makes no sense. ”
“Georges is a fighter,” Silva said. “You can’t hold a fighter. It’s the same if you take the lion in the jungle and put him inside a cage. The lion is going to die. You can’t do that. Nobody can do that. This makes no sense. This is terrible, terrible – completely terrible. ”
Silva was one of the UFC’s biggest stars for years, but the end of his tenure with the promotion was unscrupulous. He won one of his final nine octagon appearances and made comments to MMA Junkie about how the company was “completely different” since its 2016 sale, which received backlash from White.
It seems clear there’s some friction between Anderson Silva and his former promoter, and although he’s obviously biting his tongue, he said bluntly that St-Pierre deserves better.
“First of all, I think when you do your job, especially fight in the level me and Georges do it, you need to respect,” Silva said. “Georges worked hard to make a lot of things for UFC. It makes no sense, Dana White holding Georges St-Pierre. I have my personal opinion about Dana, and I’m not anymore in UFC. I don’t like to talk about UFC because everything I do inside UFC is done for me. I do my best, I put in my heart in the company, but now it’s a page in my life that’s done. ”