RIO DE JANEIRO -- Wanderlei Silva was banned from the sport of MMA after running away from an out-of-competition drug test in Nevada, and he wants nothing from the UFC.

The former PRIDE champion posted on his Facebook on Saturday a message to UFC president Dana White, saying that he feels like a slave fighting for his freedom.

"You know that I’ve been chased, discriminated, treated like a slave by this promotion," Silva wrote. "They don’t want to release me from the contract, so I can’t work anymore, which is my right of not wanting to work for them anymore, and I can’t work anywhere else. I come here asking the UFC to release me from this slavery system. You work for them or don’t work anywhere else. Some good soul, please translate this and send to Dana. I know I will find the best lawyers to help me with that."

On Saturday night’s UFC Fight Night 62 post-fight press conference in Rio de Janeiro, White responded to Silva’s message and his slavery comments.

"Wanderlei Silva ran form a drug test. He ran from a drug test. If he’s a slave, he’s a slave of his own doing," White fired back. "He did this to himself. The UFC didn’t do anything to Wanderlei Silva. Actually, everything that’s happening to Wanderlei Silva, he brings to himself."