The UFC and mixed martial arts as a whole lost a legend yesterday when Wanderlei Silva decided to call it quits on his career after alleged mistreatment by the UFC.
Wanderlei released a video yesterday bemoaning the UFC’s treatment of it’s fighters, and stating that is has caused him to retire from the sport he helped build from the ground floor.
During Wanderlei’s illustrious career, one of his major rivals was Quinton “Rampage” Jackson. The men met three times over their careers, twice in PRIDE and once in the UFC. In the end, Silva won both Pride fights via TKO/KO, and Rampage got his vengeance with a hellacious knockout in the UFC several years later.
The two men’s rivalry was very real as they legitimately despised one another, although the mutual respect was always there.
Upon hearing of Silva’s retirement, Rampage surprised everyone with this classy tweet directed at Wanderlei:
Even tho we were enemies in the ring.. i was your fan 1st. I’m with u,and I’m going threw the same pain. #WarWand pic.twitter.com/o52kOf8oYz
— Quinton Jackson (@Rampage4real) September 20, 2014
Rampage has spoken about fighter mistreatment for years, and actually left the UFC for Bellator in 2013 because of it.
Although both men were mortal enemies in the ring, it is nice to see the respect shown by a fellow legend in Rampage towards Wanderlei in his retirement.
