Dana White rules out title fight and blasts Anderson: 'maybe it's time to stop'

Dana White ruled out Spider's chance at the interim belt. Photo: Reproduction/YouTube

Dana White was not intimidated by the pressure of Anderson Silva. The Brazilian campaigned to compete for the interim middleweight belt at UFC 212, in Rio de Janeiro, but the franchise president vehemently ruled out the possibility.

“We will not fight for the interim belt. This will not happen. Michael Bisoing is active and ready to fight the number one ranked player, who is Yoel romero. Anderson Silva is number seven in the ranking. Anderson is angry, but I wasn't the one who took it Kelvin Gastelum of UFC Rio. Gastelum himself smoked marijuana and was removed from the card. We did everything we could to get Anderson a new fight. It wasn’t our fault,” said White, in an interview with the North American website TMZ.

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Spider was initially scheduled to face Kelvin Gastelum at UFC 212, on June 3, in the capital of Rio de Janeiro, but the North American was caught in a doping test for marijuana use and was removed from the fight. With that, Anderson asked for a fight for the interim belt against Yoel romero, since the champion Michael Bisping must carry out a super fight against Georges St Pierre, former welterweight champion. The Brazilian even considered retirement if the chance for the title was not offered.

Although Bisping has not defended the belt since October 2016, Dana White ruled out a fight for the interim belt and said that, if he thinks about retirement, 'Anderson should do it'

“Every time for, I don’t know, many years, it’s been interesting to deal with Anderson Silva. Obviously, he wants an interim title shot. Obviously we are not going to do this dispute. He always goes public with his demands. But everyone knows what I think about this. If you only mentioned the word 'retirement' once, then you could probably retire. If this has crossed your mind, maybe it’s time to stop,” said White.