Even a fighter with as long as distinguished career as the legendary Anderson Silva knows it will be eventually be time to call it a career.
Silva, who fights Israel Adesanya at UFC 234 in Australia on Feb. 9, will be 44 in April, and he has three fights left on his UFC deal. After that? It will be time to finally ride off into the sunset.
“I have three more and then it’s done,” Silva during a media day at his new Spider Kick gym in Los Angeles on Monday. “It’s over.”
Silva has always been one to embrace bold challenges. He remains the the longest-raining UFC champion in history, as he held the middleweight title for seven years and seven months, defeatingRich Franklin for the belt at UFC 64 and losing it to Chris Weidman at UFC 163. Former flyweight champion Demetrious Johnson bested Silva’s title defense mark by racking up 11, but Silva fought more fights during his reign, as he fought up at light heavyweight three times in his reign (and also had a non-title fight when a would-be challenger, Travis Lutter, missed weight at UFC 67).
So it shouldn’t be a surprise that Silva still has big challenges in mind in the twilight of his career, and he wants a crack at the sport’s biggest name: Conor McGregor.
“At his point in my career, I believe that the good challenge is the superfight,” Silva said. “I talk to {UFC president] Dana [White] about Georges St-Pierre, about McGregor, about McGregor especially because McGregor is a challenge, this fight. I just talk to Dana a lot about the fight that’s very interesting, fight to this guy. Because he’s an amazing fighter and a legends in this sports and let’s go see. That’s a good game, superfights, and it’s very interesting for my fans.”
While there’s an obvious weight difference between Silva and McGregor, a former lightweight and featherweight champ, Silva believes a catchweight of 180 would work.
“I believe 180 is good for me and McGregor,” Silva said. “So I just wait because I don’t control this. This is the question for Dana but maybe that this is amazing fight for the fans.”
Silva had campaigned recently for a bout with former middleweight and welterweight champion Georges St-Pierre, which was the most in-demand super fight during the duo’s run as the company’s biggest pay-per-view stars. But Silva seems to have soured on such a scenario.
“I believe Georges St-Pierre does not take the real challenge, personal,” Silva said. “He just tries to do something easy for yourself, but this is Georges St-Pierre. He’s so smart. That’s the game, that’s the business. He’s a business man.”
