Yahoo’s Kevin Iole reports that during Saturday’s fan-bumming bout between Anderson Silva and Thales Leites, Dana White walked over to Silva’s manager, Ed Soares, and expressed undisclosed sentiments. (Audio unavailable, and almost certainly not-safe-for-work in content.)
White’s specific comments have not been shared, but it’s safe to assume they weren’t congratulatory. It’s sparked discussion over the role of the promoter in potentially influencing how an athlete competes. We know the UFC’s participants have gotten the rah-rah speech prior to events in the past, but to address Silva’s management in mid-competition is flirting with charges of impropriety. You know its sad that a fighter wins and gets bagged for not walking in and 8 seconds later his oponent is knocked out and looking like Rocky Denis if i was Silva i would hand Dana the belt and tell him to go fight him then retire and go work at food lion. I think Dana was putting Vasaline on Silva to safegaurd his victory!!