(“St-Pierre it is, then.”)
Dana White spoke with Brazilian website Alpha recently, and according to the UFC president, in spite of middleweight Anderson Silva’s recent re-assertion that he isn’t interested in a fight with light heavyweight champ Jon Jones, the fight may happen before “The Spider” calls it a career.
“He’s probably the greatest fighter in history. He hasn’t lost and has been champion since 2006. I think he has two more title defenses and I do not know what he’ll do next or if he will retire,” he said. “He could end his career with a super fight against Jon Jones or George St-Pierre. He could end his career like that — fight in a different weight class. I would be happy with that. Then he could take a boat and sail into the sunset.”
Although he doesn’t think Jones’ youth would play a major factor in the fight, “The Baldfather” says Father Time and his effect on fighting skills is one of the leading causes of retirement in the sport, even amongst the sport’s best.
“Age is a shit, man. It’s the only thing you can not cheat. The fighters who become champions never finish their careers at the top. Anderson may have the ability to do this. The problem is that you never know when time will catch up with you. You are the king of the world one day, then you get in there and one day is half a second slower than before,” he explained. “And only you will know right away. Anderson is 36 years old. Jon Jones is 24. Jon Jones was in that war with Rampage. He finished the fight with swollen knees, unable to walk. Then six days later he was fine. That’s how you heal when you’re 24. But the fact is that Anderson did not get beat for a long time.”
Speaking of aging veterans, Dana said that he was disappointed that Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira didn’t finish Frank Mir when he had the chance at UFC 140 since he seemed to have the fight in the bag.
“He was two punches away from winning that fight,” White said shaking his head. “Instead he passed the guard and tried to apply a guillotine on Frank Mir. Nobody understood that. He will regret that decision for the rest of life. It was his fight. It was finished. I do not know how he sleeps after that.”