Anderson Silva: "I'll Retire Next Year"
Shocking news from InTheGuard.tv:
UFC middleweight champion Anderson Silva was recently interviewed by Brazilian cable channel SporTV. The TV show [Sensei SporTV], featuring Spider, will air on September 27, but the editors released a shocking excerpt from the interview with Silva, when the champion spoke on his retirement from MMA:
"I'll retire next year, I already gave my all. I don't need to prove anything for anyone and within one year I'll put my gloves aside."
We've often heard stories of the mythical Athlete Who Retires at His Peak, but we've never actually seen one. Hopefully, this is just Silva's way of pressuring Dana White to let him fight every month. But more likely, he feels he's accomplished as much as he can in his career without fighting friends. Silva has repeatedly shot down the idea of a fight with WEC middleweight champ Paulo Filho, and has also said that he won't challenge for the UFC's light-heavyweight title because "this belt is Lyoto's." So what does that leave besides retirement? If we're lucky, it means superfights with Georges St. Pierre and a couple of light-heavyweight stars before he rides off into the sunset.
Going out when you're on top? What a concept...
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Comments
Ox Says:
Thats crazy talk
hes good Says:
but he aint fedor
mayhem420 Says:
I can understand why he (Anderson) would feel that way. He realy does not have anything left to prove. He beat all the serious contenders at MW and other than acouple of Superfights there is nothing left for him to do.
I would still like to see him fight Chuck, Rampage, GSP, maybe BJ and while he is at it maybe Forrest. All of those would be big $$$ fights.
mmmiles Says:
Well, damnit. That sucks. Going to really miss his fights if this is true.
B Says:
No no no that is not the way it works. He needs to ride his career out for at least, AT LEAST another 12 years until he is fighting at cage rage against some nobody.
B-tard Says:
Plenty of athletes retire in their prime and everyone makes a fuss about it and then 5 years down the line everyone forgets about them.
Shawn Says:
I won't be happy until he "retires" and then comes back a year later and beats up Tim Sylvia.
VEe Says:
The man has told Dana White that his window is really small, he wants really big fights. So why not line up Liddell, or any other top LHW fighter and relinquish the MW belt. Put Silva in mega-fights after Cote.
Well hopefully Cote surprises Silva and convinces him to continue to pursue the fighter's goal of being the best.
glasco Says:
thats sad to hear he is thinking of retiring, he is so talented and classy. clearly he is fed up that dana cunt is paying brandon "the boredom" vera more than him.
he may box for affliction, even roy jones jr, though
Geriatric Peon Says:
CONGRATS TO RICH FRANKLIN. He has the chance to get his belt back at some point ;)
Mark Says:
Why does anyone want to see Silva face Chuck. Poor Chucky is not in Anderson's league anymore, he doesn't deserve to fight Anderson. He lost three of his last 4 bouts and hasn't knocked anyone out in like 21 months. Chuck vs. Anderson would = chuck being knocket out stiff and siezing in the ring... You know what would be a good fight to watch though, and i am being completely serious, Anderson Silva vs. Nathan Quarry. "the Rock" is a tough kid, who comes up with very good game plans and manages to stick with them. Now i'm not saying he would win, but I really do think that Nate could make it an exciting fight.
mayhem420 Says:
@Mark
Go watch Nate's fight with Franklin then talk to me about being "stiff" after getting KTFO. Nate would get killed. Would not be pretty.
Dex Says:
Dana will give him whatever he wants for him to stick around. Hopefull GSP and some LHW star fights will happen.
Other than that, he doesn't really have much to accomplish. I wonder if Lyoto gets a title shot and loses will he then go after the LHW belt. I hope so.
To lose a fighter like this right now would suck. :(
NealTaflinger Says:
The person this sucks the worst for is whoever wins the title fight for Silva's vacated belt. "You're the best in the world because the guy who would have demolished you retired three months ago."
Mark Says:
Mayhem, I think we can agree on the fact that Nate is a completely different fighter than he was when he fought Franklin. We can also agree that Franklin cannot beat anderson, but maybe the different style match up that Nate poses could offer some sort of difficulty for anderson. I already said he probably wouldn't win, but i think it might actually be a fight, instead of another 10 second KO.
vrax Says:
Well, I am now rooting for Cote. Only to help Anderson rediscover his motivation, of course.
At first I was upset about this, but I realize that he simply has nothing left to do. What a weird situation.
Scar Tissue Says:
This reminds me of when Michael Jordan KEPT retiring.
JPfighter Says:
So, because his division isn't as stacked as the other divisions, he rides out into the sunset? After hearing this crap, I hope Cote does "shock the world", as he says he will. Silva needs a loss or two on his record to truly gain respect for his position. I'd love to see Hendo fight for the title again.
jesus Says:
i hate silva he should be a 205er he should fight machida and he should fight fhilo but no the pound 4 pound best fighter is gona fight cote. then they will put him in the hall of fame 4 having less fights in the ufc than john matua.if he is the best he should fight the best even if he is thier friend never stoped other ufc fighters and champs .look when chuck was champ they dug up all the people that beat chuck before gave rampage one fight with eastman then gave him a title shot at chuck were these 4 people that beat silva and why not machida or thiago or rampage he might be the pound 4 pound be he hasn't earned the right to be called that everyone he has beat has already been beat in the ufc including his best 2 wins
JPfighter Says:
vrax, I disagree that that "he simply has nothing more to do". That's like saying that when a guy wins the belt, he should retire. Maybe Anderson can call up Frank Shamrock and they can hang out, showing each other their UFC belts while the rest of the MMA world continues to evolve. Not a good move.
mayhem420 Says:
Mark,
I agree that Nate is a diffrent fighter than when he fought Rich, but I just dont see him being a more difficult fight than Rich was and we all know how those fights went.
Old, Bald and Irish Says:
Expect to see Silva in a boxing ring....soon.
ninja stick Says:
Silva does not have the record of quality opponents of BJ or GSP and why the fuck should GSP go up to 185 to fight him he's got enough on his plate with BJ and the rest of them crazy 170 s.o.b.'s.... but knowing what BJ is like if he beats GSP he'd fight Anderson, BJ is the greatest pound of pound fighter out there and i dont give a flying noot nanny what you mother fuckers say. Now who would like to see Hendo Franklin at 185?
and stick the Spider in with The Axe Murderer or Rampage and to be fair to the Old boy Chuck i think he would be up for Silva more so than he was for Evans pay him 50k to fight and put a 450k win bonus on his contract and then lets see how "Old One Punch" does..
Taterriffic Says:
Did anyone think maybe he was talking about not boxing anymore and not mma?
B Says:
Thats what I was thinking Ninja. Look at who BJ, GSP and, Couture have fought and then look at Silva. Silva has Franklin and Hendo. BJ has Hughes, Gomi, Pulver, Serra, Sherk, Rodrigo and Renzo Gracie. GSP has Serra, Hughes, Penn, Fitch, Miller, Sherk, Hieron Parisyan. Couture has Belfort, Randleman, Liddell, Ortiz, Sylvia.
Geriatric Peon Says:
This is going to be like Juanito Ibarra's statement that he was going to "retire if jackson loses" and he retired from his side job. Next year we will find out that Silva makes bracelets in his spare time and he is going to retire from that.
Th3R3al3st Says:
I'm a huge Franklin Fan, however Silva has his number, no matter what. His Muay Thai in amazing and he has been using that in recent fights, excluding Jake O'Brien. 1 fight I would love to see, which would put on a Muay Thai clinic would be that one none other than Anderson Silva Vs Cung Le. Le has already stated that he would like to fight Silva, but still has some fights under his contract. Just some fights I would like to see IMO:
Silva vs Le
Silva vs Wand
Silva vs GSP
Th3R3al3st Says:
Correction for my last post *** Supposed to be James Irvin, NOT Jake O'Brien***
ballzak Says:
nate quarry fucking sucks balls...theres no fucking way in hell he should be allowed to even lick andersons feet. hes the worst fighter out of the first season and shoulda been kicked off when he "hurt his leg". quarry is a pussy and anderson fought on 2 knees fresh out of surgury, one of them not being healed yet. anderson is god and will hopefully kill patrick cote so i dont have to see another boring non finished non flashy non awesome fight.
Vrax Says:
@JPfighter: Don't get me wrong here; I don't think people should just check out once they reach the top, not at all. But in Anderson's case he has truly cleaned out his division. He says he has another year, which presumably means he'll face Cote, perhaps Maia down the line, he wants to face Okami, and he might have rematches with Hendo and/or Marquardt. Maybe we'll get lucky and he'll tack on another 3 or 4 months to fight Thales Leites, but what's left then?
For example GSP has just regained his title and defended it on one occasion. I think he still has a Ton left do. Yet if he defeats Penn, Sanchez, Alves, perhaps Kos & Fitch again - well, then what? Maybe there will be someone new, or a super fight with Jake Shields, or maybe Georges will decide he's done it all.
If a fighter finally proves to himself that he's the very best on the planet, where does he go from there?
TPark Says:
I enjoy Quarry's fights but I doubt he would match up to Silva. He'd probably end up in the same scenario as he did fighting franklin. Anyway, hopefully Cote can pull a miracle out of his ass and change Silva's mind. If not hopefully Dana White can pull a miracle out of his ass and make Silva fight GSP or BJ.
It would suck to see Silva retire but at the same time it would bore me to see him take wins over the same ppl. They should get that asian dude to fight Silva. You know? the one who got Silva to tap on a flying heelhook. Its somwhere on youtube.
Vrax Says:
@Tpark: That's Ryo Chonan, he now fights at Welterweight.
MMA Wannabe Says:
Maybe the middleweight division doesn't seem as stacked right now because Silva is still in it?
Are we all stuck on comparing the middleweights to the champ? Do they only not look like good fighters just because they would get ripped to shreds by Anderson?
I think that this is a distinct possibilty but I think Silva needs to beat Cote then Hendo again before really giving a time frame on retirement. Though a loss to either of them, I agree, would probably have him stick around longer.
TUF Guy Says:
I'll retire him twice this sunday if he would like.
::kisses bicep::
hooligun Says:
Whooa! Hold yer horses boys! Silva aint invincible, hendo came close and for sure he will lose in his next 3 fights if he faces decent opposition. You will see.
Billy Bad Ass Says:
^^^ TUF Guy is a moron.
Rob Says:
This sucks! I hope Hendo fights him again ,and beats him so he will want to stay around. Lets face it he is probably the only fighter with a chance to win. (As minute as it is...) But I also don't want him to bust a Chuck and lose to cans. I am sure you're all going to talk crap but two years ago who wouldn't laugh if you heard evans would knock Chuck out
aaron Says:
Very sad to hear this news as Anderson Silva is my absolute favorite... I respect his decision though.
Mike D. Says:
Crazy talk Anderson, straight hog-wash! Silva would be doing the sport of MMA, as a whole, a major disservice. He is the best fighter in the world. I know he feels like he's stuck between Paulo and Machida, but damn...I would love to see him fight GSP and Chuck, but the UFC needs to do a better job of attracting high quality talent for him to fight. Stick around Spider!
Hey TUF Says:
TUF GUY, go back to commenting "lolfag" on youtube and break videos.
UFC fan Says:
If Silva retires hes a fag.
retiring is a fag move.
fuck it if hes done so great, walk away now, don't wait a year.
whats he gonna do in a year that he hasn't already done, bleh fuck him, that's arrogant buncha shit talk.
Lame Says:
IMO he hasn't prooven that he is the 'best pfp fighter'.
If he lvs the fight game than it is because he is afraid to be exposed and beat up.
Oh and I'm sick of all the SILVA NUT HUGGERS!