- Tim Sylvia reflected on how he ended up leaving the UFC
- The ex-UFC heavyweight champion felt the promotion hindered him from having a great career
Former UFC heavyweight champion Tim Sylvia opened up about his devastating split with the UFC right around when he was at the peak of his career.
Dana changed his Mind
Speaking to Submission Radio, “The Maine-iac” vividly recalled how the UFC, especially Dana White, just left him up in the air when they thought they already had an agreement.
“They sent us a contract. They wanted us back after I put a big winning streak together. [It was when] Whenever they bought out Strikeforce. They asked me to fight DC [Daniel Cormier] and we said yes, and then they guaranteed two more fights, win or lose, in the UFC, because that was going to be his [Cormier’s] last fight in Strikeforce altogether. We agreed to it, it was a pretty good contract. I want to say it was 80/80, 90/90, 100/100 as long as I won. We signed it, we sent it off, but they never sent it back,” Sylvia said. “We asked Sean Shelby, ‘Dude, what’s going on with Tim’s contract?,’ he’s like, ‘Yeah, Dana changed his mind.’”
“I don’t know if I can cuss… so yeah, that’s what happened… That’s when I got really really vocal and I was really p*ssed off,” he added.
The UFC robbed Tim of a Great Career
For Sylvia, past is past but at the same time, he also knew he would’ve had a great run had the UFC let him stay. Sylvia thinks he would’ve become one of the fan favorites given the heavyweight roster at the time was stacked with vicious stand-up fighters.
“That was probably the biggest crushing moment in my career, right there,” Sylvia reflected. “At that time, there was so many great fights for me in the UFC. I didn’t care if I ever fought for the world title again, that wasn’t my goal. My goal was to go in the UFC and put on shows for the fans and at that time, we still got Cheick Kongo in there, Pat Barry, Paul Buentello, who I just recently fought before that, knocked him out, Joey Beltran… And there’s four or five guys I could think of that would’ve been awesome stand-up fights for the fans.”
“Ideally, I wanted to finish my career in the UFC… and I was ready to come back and you know eat some humble pie and keep my head down and just let my performances do the work… they thought I was like asking for more money and stuff and I wasn’t,” he added.
Reconciliation was never an option
The way Syliva sees it, the UFC never considered welcoming him back as it would make the promotion “look bad.” Regardless of what people think, “The Maine-iac” is certain that the problem wasn’t him.
“What I understand, they felt like it made them look bad because they talked so much sh*t about me that now all of a sudden, ‘Oh, well, we’ve talked all that sh*t but now we’re gonna let them come back’ so that’s kind of what we got from it.”
“I don’t care… I’ve never seen him face to face and I don’t think I ever will. I mean there’s nothing else to say. I have nothing to say… I was just a disgruntled employee and they were sh**ty owners, bosses you could say. Obviously, that’s the truth because I’m not the only one that is still going on here too, I mean they disrespect fighters all the time with the way Dana’s talks sh*t about [Francis] Ngannou right, he was supposedly the baddest man in the planet and now that he left him, he sucks,” he pointed out.
Sylvia held the UFC heavyweight belt from 2003 to 2004. He went on to face an array of MMA legends such as Andre Arlovski, Frank Mir, and Randy Couture, among others, before leaving the promotion in 2008. At present, Sylvia has found a new lease on life with slap fighting.
