Jose Aldo fires back at Anderson Silva after ‘The Spider’ told fans to return their UFC 212 tickets

Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) featherweight champion Jose Aldo is gearing up for his title unification bout against interim titleholder Max Holloway at the upcoming UFC 212 pay-per-view (PPV) event, scheduled for Sat., June 3, 2017 inside HSBC Arena in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

Full details here.

And like Vitor Belfort, Aldo expects local fans to show up and support the Brazilian fighters, even though ex-middleweight kingpin Anderson Silva suggested that ticket refunds resulting from his canceled fight were the more appealing option.

Aldo — no stranger to UFC rifts — talks to A.G. Fight for FloCombat:

"I would never do such a thing. The UFC played an important role in shaping me [into] the athlete I am today. I have my merits, I worked hard and I deserved this. But I would not have achieved this by myself. I had to leave fight cards in less than a month also, and still, I encouraged the fans to attend the show. You can't put the fans against the organization--doesn't matter what happens. When everything is doing well, you are good, but whenever things change, it is everything against you. I always tried to defend the athletes that are in the beginning of their careers, the ones I thought were treated unfairly," Aldo said. "I had a lot of problems with the UFC and I was punished many times for stepping up for other fighters. The UFC always made it clear that I should defend myself in order to grow in the organization. But, when you care less about other fighters and only think of your own gain, you show the fans who you really are, your real character. When you are doing fine, you are one kind of person. When things are going bad, you change your personality. I will never be like that, no matter what.”

UFC announced the refund option just last week.

Silva has since taken to his Instagram account to reassure the mixed martial arts (MMA) community that he was not dissuading fight fans from attending UFC 212, but rather reassuring disappointed “Spider” supporters that refunds were available.

Tangled web indeed.