Anderson Silva is one of the last remaining active fighters from the previous UFC generation. “The Spider” was part of the company’s early glory days in the late 2000s, when it was under the ownership of Lorenzo and Frank Fertitta.
The Fertitta brothers relinquished their ownership rights after the UFC’s sale to entertainment giant WME-IMG in 2016. And for Silva, the UFC landscape was never the same since then.
“I think the UFC changed for me when Lorenzo came out,” Silva told MMA Junkie in a recent interview. “Lorenzo tried to put inside the UFC the big family, and right now it’s completely different, but I continue to fight inside the UFC because I have a lot of friends, and I feel the same family. But, yeah, of course it’s changed a lot when Lorenzo is not inside.”
For Silva, the most noticeable difference is the fighters’ relationship with the new owners.
“I think Lorenzo and the Fertitta brothers, who (were) the owners of the UFC, the relationship with fighters was more close, especially for me. I love Dana (White), but Lorenzo and his brother (were) very close to the fighters and tried to make the UFC fighters part of the UFC family.”
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