White: Silva urging fans to refund UFC 212 tickets is ‘dirty’ and a ‘horrible thing to do’

Anderson Silva was recently officially pulled from next month’s UFC 212 after a search for a short-notice replacement was unsuccessful. The UFC is offering refunds for the event for the next week, and the former UFC middleweight champion has suggested that all of his fans capitalize on that.

“The Spider” was scheduled to face Kelvin Gastelum in the co-main event, but Gastelum was removed from the card after failing a drug test for marijuana. Earlier this week, USADA suspended him for six months.

A number of options were discussed, from Luke Rockhold to Ovince Saint Preux, but the perfect matchup wasn’t found.

“You have every right to get your ticket money back. In fact, everyone who's a fan of mine should do the same,” Silva wrote in an Instagram comment (translation via BloodyElbow.com’s Lucas Rezende; H/T MMAjunkie.com’s Fernanda Prates).

UFC president Dana White isn’t pleased with Silva’s recent comments.

“That’s crazy talk. That’s a pretty horrible thing to do to the rest of the fighters that are on the card in Brazil,” he told reporters ahead of UFC 211 (via Aaron Bronsteter). “Did I pull the Kelvin Gastelum fight? Did I make this fight not happen? It had nothing to do with us. He’s acting like a maniac.

“Holloway is on a 10-fight win streak; he’s finally getting the opportunity at the title. Jose Aldo’s gonna get the chance to fight and beat Holloway. And they’re all gonna get paid. Who is Anderson Silva to say, ‘Bring your tickets back and don’t watch the rest of the fighters on the card.’ That’s dirty.”

UFC 212 takes place live from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil on June 3. In the main event, Jose Aldo and Max Holloway unify the featherweight and interim featherweight championships.