Sylvia Rails Against ‘S—ty Bosses’ At UFC

Sylvia revealed that the UFC offered him a contract to fight Daniel Cormier in Strikeforce before tearing up the deal.

Former two-time UFC heavyweight champion Tim Sylvia’s MMA days are long over, and now he’s having a fun time competing in slap fighting events. That doesn’t mean he’s forgotten how poorly he was treated by the UFC at the end of his career.

In a new interview with Submission Radio, Sylvia revealed that he almost returned to the UFC in 2012 to fight Daniel Cormier.

“We actually had a contract. They sent us a contract,” Sylvia said. “They wanted us back after I put a big winning streak together. Whenever they bought out Strikeforce. So, they got me a fight. They asked me to fight DC and we said yes. And then they guaranteed two more fights, win or lose, with the DC fight in the UFC. Cuz that was gonna be his last fight in Strikeforce altogether. And we greatly agreed to it.”

“It was a pretty good contract. I wanna say it was 80/80, 90/90, 100/100 as long as I won. But yeah, we signed it, we sent it off, and they never sent it back. And Monty asked Sean Shelby, he’s like, ‘dude, what’s going on with Tim’s contract?’. He’s like, ‘yeah, Dana’s changed his mind’. And I was like, you motherf—er. But yeah, that’s what happened. It’s like, here’s the carrot, dangle it over you, and yeah, and they took it away. That’s when I got really, really vocal and I was really pissed off.”

Sylvia was on a 7-1 winning streak at the time, which seems more than good enough to get a former ex-champion back into the UFC. But Sylvia believes he wasn’t respected by Dana White and the Fertittas. So why would they bring him back?

“I was a disgruntled employee and they were s—y bosses, I guess you could say,” he said. “And it’s obvious that’s the truth because I’m not the only one. It’s still going on. They disrespect fighters all the time. Look at the way Dana’s talked s— about Ngannou. He was supposedly the baddest man on the planet, and now that he left him he sucks? That’s just bulls—. Dana just talking s—, trying to make himself look better.”

Isn’t Syvia worried he’s closing the door on a potential move up to Dana White’s Power Slap League, the top dawg in slap sports?

“No. There would be a lot of things that would have to come into play,” he said. One is, I’ve been brought in as one of the owners as Slap Fighting Alliance. So, it’d have to be a co-promotion. I’d have to get a verbal apology from Dana White. I would have to be put into the UFC hall of fame immediately. And yeah… I don’t see any of those things happening.”

Sylvia just competed in another slap fighting event this weekend, and we’ll make sure to get you results and highlights from that as soon as they’re available. Until then, you’ll have to make do with these shots across the bow at Dana White.