Farid Basharat has refuted comments made by former boss Dana White after his UFC release.The 29-year-old British bantamweight contender was 16-0 in his professional MMA career when the UFC removed him from the active roster last week.White suggested the undefeated Basharat may have been hard to deal with in his three-year UFC runGettyBasharat, like older brother Javid Basharat, who joined the PFL after being cut by the UFC earlier this year, is now a free agent and will no doubt have many promotions chasing his signature.UFC CEO White confirmed Basharat’s release this past weekend during UFC Edmonton’s post-fight press conference, where he alluded to the fighter being cut for reasons other than his performances.White mentioned matchmakers potentially not wanting to deal with Basharat due to turning down fights.“If you’re 16-0 with seven wins in the UFC and don’t get re-signed, there’s definitely a reason,” White said.His comments have prompted a response from Basharat, who claims he never turned down a fight and was definitely not hard to deal with.Farid Basharat responds to Dana White“I want to address these comments made by Dana at the press conference last night,” Basharat said on social media.“First of all, he alluded to maybe I was turning down fights, or maybe I was difficult to deal with.“I’ve said it many times already, I definitely didn’t turn nobody down.“In fact, we’re talking about the same guy that in Abu Dhabi when I fought in 2024, my opponent missed weight by 10lbs and I still went ahead with the fight.“And from what I know, it’s the largest weight disparity in UFC history. I still went ahead with the fight, still put on a good show and won.”View Tweet: https://t.co/3EIoLumHs2Basharat continued: “My Contender Series fight, I had a torn MCL in my elbow, still went ahead with the fight. My last fight I was injured.“So there are facts you can ask your UFC staff; you can ask the nutrition team, you can ask the physio team; they will tell you these are facts.“And regarding if I was difficult to deal with, again, speak to your staff, ask anybody about me; there were no issues with me in any way, shape or form.“And I just feel like I had to put that out there to clear my name because Dana has gone out there and said all these things.“I beat them all. I always put on a good show. Every single one of my last opponents I’ve rocked or hurt. So I felt like I had to make this video to clear things up.”Basharat earned his UFC contract through the Contender Series in 2022 and made his promotional debut in March 2023.PFL – soon-to-be MVP MMA – is an obvious move for Basharat next, just like his older brother JavidGetty‘Ferocious’ won all seven of his UFC bouts by decision, aside from a first-round submission at UFC Paris in September 2023.talkSPORT's UFC pound-for-pound rankingstalkSPORT.com has collectively voted on the best fighters to form a regularly updated UFC pound-for-pound (P4P) rankings system for the rest of 2026 and beyond.Our P4P list will be updated regularly based on performances in the Octagon — with wins, records, title wins and defences, calibre of opponents, methods of victory and much more all determining who makes it.UFC champions Islam Makhachev, Joshua Van and Sean Strickland feature – but big stars such as Alex Pereira and Tom Aspinall miss out.