(Photo courtesy of MMAJunkie.)

Yesterday, we wrung our hands about Anderson Silva‘s claim that he would retire next year. Nobody was more taken aback by the news than Silva’s manager, Ed Soares, who reassured Mike Chiappetta at NBC Sports that Silva’s retirement is 19 months away at the earliest. (“Next year” could mean “15 months from now” if you do the math, but whatever.) Here’s what Soares had to say:

“His goal has always been to retire at 35 years old. That’s his goal. He’s still got a good 19 months until he turns 35. He’s got six fights still on his contract. He’d love to retire at 35 and finish on top. It’s been something he’s thinking about even before he was champ…

Maybe he gets to 35 and he still feels great. I told him, ‘If you get to 35 and change your mind, that’s fine. But let’s complete one goal: let’s get to 35 and make that decision.’”

According to Soares, one of the main reasons for Silva’s looming retirement is his desire to spend more time with his family. (“Soares estimated Silva only gets to spend about 25 percent of his time at home.”)

Nineteen months doesn’t seem like a long time, but when you think of it in terms of six fights, then yeah, maybe we’ll be ready to let go by April 2010. We just hope Silva makes those fights count, and that they’re not all eaten up by obligatory title defenses. This would be a good time for the UFC to try scaring up some outside middleweight talent to put against The Spider. I think the U.S. is ready to meet this Gegard Mousasi fella, for example…