End of an era: Following promotion’s sale, matchmaker Joe Silva leaving UFC

Silva’s exit was confirmed to FOX Sports on Wednesday by sources close to the situation following an initial report by MMAJunkie.

In a development that might significantly affect the Ultimate Fighting Championship going forward, the organization’s top matchmaker Joe Silva is reportedly retiring.

The UFC was sold for a record-breaking $4 billion to an investment group led by William Morris Endeavor and International Management Group (WME-IMG).

One of the last remnants of the UFC’s pre-Zuffa era is saying goodbye. He has remained a major figure within the company ever since.

Matchmaker Sean Shelby, picked from the rubble of World Extreme Cagefighting (WEC), could be in line for a promotion, or at the very minimum, gets some help from the outside.

Eagle-eyed viewers believed that they’d witnessed an angry exchange between Silva and new UFC CEO Ari Emanuel during the UFC 202 weigh-ins, as Cody Garbrandt and Takyea Mizugaki took to the scales, but that’s pure speculation at this stage. He initially served as a consultant and was one of the few members who stuck with the company after the SEG-to-Zuffa sale in 2001.

Silva is not expected to leave the UFC immediately but rather transition out over the next six months according to sources. Selby, up to now, primarily focused on matchmaking for the featherweight, bantamweight, flyweight, and women’s weight divisions. The executives of the company stand to make a significant amount of money from the deal. And why shouldn’t he retire if he pocketed a substantial sum from the sale of the company?