Wanderlei Silva talks about his future aspirations as his pro MMA career comes to an end.
As he prepares to take on longtime rival, Chael Sonnen, Wanderlei Silva talks about the fights he would like to have in Bellator before he hangs up the gloves for good. As he revealed to Fox Sports, Silva would like to rematch some of the big names he faced in the past.
“I would like a rematch against Vitor Belfort, Quinton Jackson, and Dan Henderson. There’s a lot of classic guys that would make a cool fight against me. That’s because there’s too many fights going on these days, but no classics where everyone stops to watch them. A cool rivalry, with good marketing. There’s been some good fights, obviously, but classics? With big name guys? It just doesn’t happen anymore. They’re all retiring, quitting. We need to bring back those guys so that through those classic fights, we can promote new names and make them become legends and fighting classic fights in the future like us.”
“Bellator is growing a lot. They have a much bigger number of shows now. They’re really starting to build their champions, so kudos to them. The company growing non-stop, no doubt about it. Nowadays, Bellator is the number two company, but on June 24, everyone’s saying it’ll be number one. That’s the day we’ll beat the UFC, who cancelled their event and changed it to a different day out of respect for us. They’re afraid of this show we’re putting on, that will be huge, no doubt about it.”
Wanderlei Silva is expected to take on Chael Sonnen in the main event of Bellator 180, in New York, on June 24. Fedor Emelianenko will take on Matt Mitrione in the night’s co-main event.