Wand: Fighters deserve more respect from promoters

Submission Radio has established itself as one of the most compelling media outlets in mixed martial arts. And they did it from Australia, a hike from the sport’s capital in Vegas.

In their latest coup, they spoke with retired legend Wanderlei Silva. Silva retired shortly before he was suspended indefinitely from the Nevada State Athletic Commission, for running from a PED test.

Silva made it clear that he is done with fighting, and has no intention of fighting for another promotion. In any case, it would be problematic if he tried to do so, as he remains under contract with the UFC.

Rather than showing contrition over running from the test, Wand has lashed out bitterly at the NSAC and the UFC. Wand also made clear that he has no problem with UFC president Dana White, who recently responded to Silva’s complaints about fighter pay by noting that Wand had made $10,000,000 working for the league.

“For me, I have a good relationship with him,” said Silva. “I respect him, he respects me.

“With me, no, no problems. He was talking about the money that I make. I never said (that he wasn’t paid enough). The money for me, okay it’s good. Not like it’s in the NFL, but it’s okay. I’m not talking about my money. I’m talking about the money for the younger guys. The guys who are coming from nothing and expect to fight for 4,000 bucks. I don’t know, this is not fair. You’re going to hurt yourself, put your life on the way for 4,000 or 8,000 bucks. This is not fair.”

Wand maintains that as he had not physically signed a bout agreement for the announced fight with Chael Sonnen in Las Vegas, the NSAC had no jurisdiction to test him.

“We need to make the clear rules,” said Wand. “The clear rules about the commission, the clear rules about the contract, you know?

“This commission, nobody knows who put these guys there. Nobody knows who took these guys. Nobody knows. Nobody knows nothing. We need to know who gives the power to these guys, who gets behind these guys. You know, because we don’t know. We never know.

“We need to open the book and I want to know everything.”

“I’ll go to the court. This is not fair, and I’m going to fight to the finish.

“I’m gonna prove that these guys have no law against me. These guys can’t do nothing with me. I’m gonna prove that.”

“I don’t have a license. Man, I don’t work for these guys. I don’t have a contract or have nothing signed. What these guys can do? Nothing, and that is their rules. I don’t make these rules. These guys make the rules, and these (guys) don’t respect their rules. What? These guys want to be over the law.”

Wand also called for changes in the UFC. In short, he wants fighters to make more money.

“You put the guy on a contract. You need to take care of this guy,” he said.

“When the guys open their eyes, that’s going to be better for the sport. Because when the fighters have more money, the guys can have better trainers, eat better, can train better. When the fight is better, you’re gonna make the new idols, you’re gonna make the classics too. We’re going back to the top again, because right now the MMA goes down. All the numbers. You can check the pay-per-views, you can check the views.

“Before, in my time, we had the fights and we topped the couches with people around the world. Everybody was talking about this guy against this guy, big fight, huge fight. This does not happen anymore.

“I want to make MMA ready to go into the next steps to be like the NFL, like American football.

“I want the fighters to have a better life. Like a better life in general. Because sometimes the guy (MMA promotions) treat the guys good, just only when the guy is fighting good. When the guy is fighting bad, the guys are fighting the sometimes on the internet, on twitter; ‘this guy is no longer part of the company anymore’. The guys don’t call to say ‘hey, you can’t work for us anymore. No this is not fair. And sometimes in the press conferences they say ‘this guy is this, this guy is that, this guy needs to retire, this guy..’ no. We make the show. We need respect. The guys need to respect us, and this is why I don’t want to fight again.”

While advocating for greater fighter pay is an understandable and even laudable goal, the circumstances around his suspension make Wanderlei Silva a problematic figure to serve as spokesman for it.

In a series of interviews White has declined to respond with the full blast he is famous for.

“You know, I never had anything bad to say about Wanderlei,” said White recently. “I still don’t have anything bad to say about Wanderlei, but he could have not have handled this situation any worse than he has.”