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By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief
The debacle surrounding Saturday's UFC on Fuel 9 event is reaching embarrassing heights, as Wanderlei Silva now says he was, indeed, playing on April Fool's joke on Monday. Despite vehemently telling Brazilian reporters on the record that he wasn't joking, that he was flying to Sweden to replace Alexander Gustafsson against Gegard Mousasi, and that he was trying to cut weight to take the fight, Silva said Tuesday morning that he "got" everyone.
I catch you wand the best April first ever!! But I would like this to be true!!! O melhor primeiro de… instagram.com/p/Xmr70Dkq4A/
Silva would "like this to be true", but instead flat out lied to reporters in Brazil. Is it possible he was telling the truth and is going this route because the UFC wasn't ready to announce him as in? Perhaps. And if it is, that's terrible handling of the situation on the UFC's part, not that they've been doing a great job on that front to start with.
For the record, UFC President Dana White did say on Monday that Silva was not in the fight and was just playing an April Fool's day joke, but it was Silva's insistence that he was telling the truth that got play, and now things are less clear on Saturday than they were before.
Caught in the midst of all of this is Gegard Mousasi, and regardless of what's going on with Silva, the UFC's done a poor job of informing him of what's going on for the event. Given that he's heading to Sweden himself today, and is still fighting as far as he knows, it seems like it would be beneficial to know who he's facing.
He keeps getting told nothing's changed with Gustafsson, and yet it still seems highly likely that Gustafsson will not be cleared because of the severity of his cut. He was open to the fight with Silva, but was left very unhappy this morning once Silva's Tweet hit the fray.
It's just a bad situation this week, especially for Mousasi, and far from a fair one. If there's a likely chance that Gustafsson could be pulled, and the UFC had been searching for a replacement opponent, Mousasi should at least be kept up to speed on the state of things. It's unacceptable to leave him questioning first whether or not he's even fighting, and second who exactly he'll be in there against on Saturday night. That's completely unfair to him, and the UFC has handled this situation with Gustafsson poorly.
As for Silva, if this was an "April Fool's Day joke" completely initiated by him, it's not funny. It's not a lighthearted prank, and indeed it's messing with the professions of several people. Not only is him outright lying a smack in the face professionally to the reporters whom he gave those comments to, not to mention something that could then affect their credibility amongst their readers, but getting Mousasi to think the fight was legitimately coming if it's not is also unacceptable and just an asinine thing to do.
There's no rhyme or reason behind it, leaving us with a situation that's simply infuriating for some, detrimental to others, and entirely unnecessary in the first place.
And it comes back to Saturday night again as well, because if Gustafsson can't go, and the UFC doesn't actually have Silva on stand-by, then they're likely going to lose their main event entirely. If Silva is heading to Sweden and on stand-by, then calling it an April Fool's joke this morning was, again, unnecessary, childish, and just plain stupid.
For now, it remains a waiting game, as Gustafsson's yet to be cleared to fight, and he's yet to be denied as well. But Silva's part in things just turned the week into a farce, and unfortunately for Mousasi he's still left in the dark as he boards a plane to Sweden.
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Jamie Penick, editor-in-chief
(mmatorcheditor@gmail.com)
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