Dana White says his relationship with Anderson Silva never recovered after the UFC decided it was time for “The Spider” to stop fighting.
White addressed the split during a Rolling Stone interview ahead of UFC Freedom 250, saying Silva still refuses to speak with him years after the promotion moved on from the former middleweight champion. Silva’s UFC exit came in 2020 after his TKO loss to Uriah Hall, with White publicly saying afterward that Silva should retire.
“Anderson Silva, a guy who was always a unique individual to deal with, but he lost like eight or nine in a row, something like that, and that guy won’t talk to me to this day because I said it’s over, and he was in his 40s,” White said. “His thing was, ‘Who are you to tell me that I’m done doing what I love to do?’”
White misstated the exact number. Silva was not on an eight- or nine-fight losing streak. His UFC run ended with three straight losses, and he had lost seven of his final eight Octagon appearances before being released with one bout remaining on his contract.
Watch the full Rolling Stone interview below:
White Says Some Fighters Never Forgive The UFC For Calling Time
Silva’s final UFC chapter came after one of the greatest runs the sport has ever seen. He held the UFC middleweight title for 2,457 days, still the longest title reign in company history, and won 16 straight UFC fights from 2006 to 2012. He was inducted into the UFC Hall of Fame in 2023.
Silva struggled late in his UFC run, and White said similar retirement conversations have damaged other relationships with aging fighters who were not ready to stop.
“Even guys that were really good, but it’s at the end, and I’m like, ‘Yeah, it’s time for them to hang them up,’ and they get upset, and some of these guys never talk to me again,” White said.
White framed the issue as a mix of money, adrenaline, and a fighter’s refusal to accept decline until the cage proves it. He used Madison Square Garden as the example of what elite fighters are trying to hold onto.
“First of all the money, ‘One more paycheck. Let me get one more paycheck,’” White said. “Then it’s the, imagine being at that level and walking out of the tunnel at Madison Square Garden with 22,000 people going crazy, and you just never know it’s over until you actually get in there, and you can’t pull the trigger the way you used to, and you get beat.”
Silva has not issued a new response to White’s latest comments. The dispute is simple: White says he was making a safety and performance call; Silva’s objection, according to White, was that the decision should be his.
After leaving the UFC, Silva moved into boxing, a lane he had wanted to explore for years. His pro boxing run includes wins over Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. and Tito Ortiz, plus a decision loss to Jake Paul in 2022. Silva has also remained connected to combat sports business, including recent comments questioning White’s approach to Zuffa Boxing and control in the sport.
The fracture still stands out because Silva was not just another veteran being told to stop. He was the face of the middleweight division for years, a champion whose prime made elite opponents look frozen, and one of the few names who changed how fans judged striking in MMA. According to White, Silva has kept that distance ever since.
That final stretch also connects back to Silva’s last UFC fight week. Before the Hall of Fame chapter and the boxing move, Silva was still refusing to close the door after the Uriah Hall loss, a stance that matched his public uncertainty at the time about whether he was really done with MMA.
