The next UFC event on August 16th will take place in Tim Sylvia’s home state of Maine. Sylvia hasn’t fought in the UFC since losing to Minotauro Nogueira in February 2008, and he’s never really come close to a return, much to the former heavyweight champ’s dismay. Sylvia’s next fight will be against fellow ex-UFCer Christian Morecraft, but it won’t be inside the Octagon, and in an interview with the New England Fights podcast, “The Maine-iac” unleashed his thoughts on Dana White and the UFC, who have apparently started a super heavyweight division: (Quotes via MMA Mania)
“Dana is the way he is. Everyone knows how Dana White is, and he’s never gonna change, unfortunately… Everybody knows what Dana White is, what kind of person he is… Coming from Maine, I don’t know… it’s just stupid. Put me and Frank Mir on the card and it would be a hell of a fight. A lot of Mainers deserve that.
They deserve to see me fight in the UFC again in the state of Maine. They just added a super heavyweight division, I hear. So, it’s like, it seems like every month, every other month they’re doing something just to entice me or to piss me off and say, ‘Ha ha, look what we’re doing now and you’re still not welcome back.’ They’re just doing shit just to piss me the fuck off. It’s really annoying.
Now that they have a super heavyweight division, give me a chance to win another belt in another division. Randy Couture’s done it. BJ Penn’s done it. There’s no way I could ever fight light heavyweight. Well, now they’re adding super heavyweight. I know I could win that belt, as long as guys like Cain Velasquez doesn’t step up and fight for the super heavyweight belt. I’m a realist. I know Cain is the best guy out there right now. I still have the punching power. If I hit him, if I got lucky and hit a good shot off him, I’d knock him out. He’s a smart fighter. He’d go in there and take me down, take me down and then when I think he’s gonna take me down, he’s gonna stand up, and it would just be a horrible, physical fight for me if I had to fight 25 minutes with that guy.”
The 38-year-old Sylvia is 0-3, 1 NC in his last 4 fights, which includes an NC against Andrei Arlovski and setbacks against Tony Johnson and current UFC fighter Ruslan Magomedov. Having frequently missed the heavyweight limit, coupled with an inability to beat anyone within the 265 lbs limit, the odds of him coming back are slim and none.
But what do you think about his rant? Would you be even remotely interested in a Mir-Sylvia rematch? Or a return to the UFC in a super heavyweight division?
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