As fighters continue to share horror stories about former UFC matchmaker Joe Silva, former lightweight title challenger Gray Maynard was the latest to chip in with his own.
Although Maynard didn’t share a particular story where he was directly affected, he did recount how prior to his fight with Roger Huerta back in 2009, he was allegedly asked by Silva to break his opponent’s arm.
The reason? Huerta spoke out against the UFC.
“A big Joe Silva story for me — it really wasn’t against me, it was kind of for me — but I understood how he was right after,” Maynard said on the Jon Fitch Knows Nothing podcast. “Huerta was kind of the poster guy and I was asking for Huerta for a long time just because I thought that was a great fight to get my name out there. … And they were pumping him up. He was on the cover of Sports Illustrated.
“… Huerta spoke out. He spoke out against the UFC. They were pissed. They were so pissed. Joe Silva called me up and said, ‘look, I’m giving you this fight as a gift. I want you to go out there and break his arm. I want you to f*cking kill him and blah, blah, blah.’ I was just like, ‘holy sh*t, they are ruthless about that.’
Huerta Criticized UFC After They Took His Sponsor
According to Maynard, the issue stemmed from Huerta criticizing the promotion in an article after they failed to compensate him properly after taking one of his sponsors.
“Because he spoke out. They actually took one of his sponsors or something,” Maynard said. “He was doing like an appearance and he was supposed to get paid by the alcohol company. They [UFC] called the alcohol company and said, ‘don’t pay him, we’ll take care of him’ or something and he didn’t get anything. He got per diem. He was supposed to get $10,000 when he went out there or something.
“Anyways, he did this article and they were pissed, they were so pissed. Then Joe Silva called me — I don’t know when it was — but he was definitely upset. Because I was on that streak and maybe they obviously knew I was going to beat him. But that’s when I knew this really isn’t about fighting. It’s not about where you’re at in the rankings, where or what you’re doing. It’s really about what they want. What they need and want is what you can provide. How can you take care of that. That’s when I understood.”
As for the fight itself, it was a close one which ended up being a split decision win over Maynard. That didn’t go down well with Silva either.
“It was a close fight,” Maynard added. “Tough kid. Afterwards, Joe Silva was a little butthurt or whatever that I didn’t beat him up worse.”
Expect more Silva stories in the coming weeks.
