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Wand:UFC is a freak show, talks about NSAC, Sonnen, disrespect, brain damage...
Ok guys,
This brazilian website just interviewed Wanderlei Silva and he talked about different points. It is a very long read, and in portuguese, so I summarized the main points:
- He has not been contacted by NSAC yet, and is not sure if he will fight back and go to court against them to revert the fee
-He has no desire left to fight, not for UFC or any other organization. This might change, but he will never fight for UFC ever
- Talks about how UFC is mismanaged and don't pay well the athletes. They "force" athletes to fight on short notice. If someone gets injured, they mock them on live TV. They don't pay enough the fighters. HE said he had a good salary, but not enough to make him comfortable. He is comfortable now because of the PRIDE money and the way he invested the money. He talks about Renan Barao living in slum until recently, while he was a champ. Talks about Faber getting more money than the Champion Barao.
- He says he has chronic pain issues (back, hand, wrists). He also has memory issues, and forget things. He is aware that all those damages were from his "kamikaze" style of fighting, but he does not regret a thing.He always fought with heart, and to him, putting up a show to fans is more important than winning the fight. This is what differs UFC from PRIDE. Pride would respect every fighter, even if they lose. It is about the show, not the results itself. Fighters fight always safe (afraid of getting cut) and this is why he thinks the PPV rate is declining (fighters are afraid to lose and being called "pussies or losers" by Dana White and getting cut).
- He respects Sonnen, specially after he twitted that Wand had a HOF career.He wish he could fight him.
- He would like to have faced 3 guys before retirement: Belfort, Sonnen and Henderson
- Crocrop fight was the toughest of his career (the one he was knocked out)
- He questions why Sonnen was "banned" and Belfort was released to fight by NSAC if they had the same problem of recurrent use of banned substances. He thinks what they did to Sonnen is not fair. He needs to provide for his family, and they fired him from TV, UFC and now they want him to not compete or other tournaments.
- He thinks his greatest "rival/enemy" was Rampage, and he likes him, specially after he showed support to Wand on Twitter.
- He thinks MMA peaked and might be declining, specially because of UFC monopoly and the way they " force" fighters to always win, otherwise they get cut. Fans prefer great fights with knock outs, vicious exchanges, submissions, not decision and "safe fights"
- Dana is ruining the sport by the way he exposes fighters. He can't be more important than any fighter, and he should never disrespect someone that goes in the ring and puts their health in the line.
- It is not about him anymore, it is about the fighters. He would like to help others and try to create some sort of organization to defend fighters. They need to stand up and fight for them, because when they have physical injuries after a tough career, nobody will take care of them.
- It is ridiculous that the sponsors are being charged by the UFC just to have the right to sponsor a fighter. This is reducing even more the revenue for fighters, and most sponsors are going away.
- Most fighters have no education, and can't negotiate contracts. UFC takes advantage of the situation and offer shitty contracts. Much less than PRIDE.
- If UFC wants to put him on the UFC HOF, he will refuse. He is already on the HOF of the MMA fans, and this is what matters to him
Sorry for some grammar issues, I translated on the go.
source:
http://sportv.globo.com/site/combat...sac-e-vitor-belfort-e-volta-criticar-ufc.html