10 UFC Fighters Dana White Fell Out Of Love With

8. Tim Sylvia

Dana White Bj Penn Cross
© John Pyle/Icon SMI/Corbis

From bullish, hard-hitting UFC Heavyweight Champion, to out on his ass and mocked by Dana White. That’s the story of Tim Sylvia.

During the period of 2002–08, Sylvia had a great run in the UFC’s heavyweight ranks, winning the UFC Heavyweight Champion on two occasions. Upon requesting out of his UFC contract following a loss to Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira at UFC 81, The Maine-iac was surprisingly granted his release with one fight still remaining on his deal.

The main reason that Sylvia wanted out of UFC, was that he wanted to chase the big-money fight against Fedor Emelianenko. And get that fight, he did – with Tim choked out barely 30 seconds into that Affliction: Banned contest.

After a nine-second KO loss to Ray Mercer at a 2009 Adrenaline MMA event, Sylvia decided to make a play to return to the UFC. Unfortunately for him, Dana White had completely soured on the former UFC Heavyweight Champ and brutally shot down that idea.

In the way that only Dana White can, the UFC head mocked Sylvia for not having won a fight in years, before claiming that his performance against Mercer made MMA look like a joke. Finishing off this tirade, Dana said that the only way that Tim Sylvia could return to the UFC is if he competed on The Ultimate Fighter amongst the amateurs looking to earn a UFC contract.

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