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Anthony Pettis still fancies a fight with Anderson Silva.
Failed drug tests and three winless years aside, there remains a lot of value in Anderson Silva’s name. For some ex-UFC champions, “The Spider” is still the undoubted Greatest of All-Time.
That name value also made it easy for Anthony Pettis, who’s fought at 170 pounds at the heaviest, to previously agree to a middleweight fight against the 45-year-old future Hall-of-Famer.
Both parties were already on board, but UFC president Dana White immediately killed it off.
“Yeah no,” White told reporters during the Eye vs. Calvillo pre-fight scrum. “Guys talk s—t every day on Twitter and social media.”
But even with that fight seemingly out of the picture, it’s something that still attracts Pettis and his team. In a recent Instagram post, “Showtime” put up a photo of him and head coach Duke Roufus studying film of Silva’s fight against Israel Adesanya.
Silva, who’s on a 1-4 run since his 2015 return, last saw action at UFC 237 in May 2019, where he was stopped by Jared Cannonier via first-round TKO. Pettis, meanwhile, last fought at UFC 249 in May and ended up with a unanimous decision win over Donald Cerrone.