Anderson Silva
A number of fighters stepped up last week to fill in at the now cancelled UFC 151 event including UFC middleweight champion Anderson ‘The Spider’ Silva (32-4), who offered to face a “light heavyweight” fighter who hadn’t been training for the event.
During a television interview on the Domingao do Faustao show in Brazil on the Rede Globo television network, Silva explained to fans his offer to UFC president Dana White to “save” UFC 151 when asked by a member of the audience to give his thoughts on Jon Jones.
(Transcription via Sherdog.com)
“You have a whole camp preparing to fight a specific athlete,” Silva replied. “When the opponent changes, the preparation changes a bit. I thought he could have fought Chael, but it’s his decision. He prepared to fight Dan Henderson. The whole team thought it was best not to fight.”
Silva also spoke about the rumors that he offered to “save” UFC 151 at the last minute.
“When I heard the event might be canceled, I called [UFC President] Dana White and said I would fight in the light heavyweight division against someone who also wasn’t training for the event,” explained Silva. “Besides the main fight, the event had many other fighters who depended on it. I worried about that, because I have lived through situations like this in smaller events.”
Silva stopped Chael Sonnen this past July to win his sixteenth straight victory and is taking some time off for the rest of the year. Who he’ll return to the Octagon against is up for debate, as far as ‘The Spider’s’ camp is concerned, but the general consensus is that it should be undefeated fighter Chris Weidman.