Anderson “The Spider” Silva is not pleased with fellow UFC middleweights and Brazilian countrymen Lyoto Machida and Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza.
Speaking on a UFC 183 pre-fight media call on Thursday evening, Silva expressed his disappointment with each man’s willingness to accept a fight against him.
“Jacare is my friend, Lyoto is my friend, but all the time the guys don’t talk the same as me,” Silva said. “When I go to talk to people in the media, I say, ‘I’m not going to fight Lyoto because he’s my friend. I’m not going to fight Jacare because he’s my friend.’ But when those guys go to talk to (the) media, Lyoto says, ‘I’ll go fight Anderson…’ Jacare is the same, ‘I’ll go fight (Anderson) because I’m a fighter.'”
The reporter on the line at the time, Fox Sports’ Damon Martin, followed up and asked Silva if this bothered or upset him. Silva’s response reinforced his disappointment.
“Yeah, absolutely (it upsets me),” Silva said. “I go and train with guys, I go help you. I go help the guys. I put (my energy) into helping guys. When guys talk like this, I’m very, very, very disappointed…This is a sport, the guys stay in the UFC for fights, but I don’t like to fight Brazilian guys.”
Silva’s feelings are somewhat well-founded.
On one side, Machida said he’d fight Silva as recently as January of this year. Jacare, meanwhile, has repeatedly said he’s not 100 percent open to fighting The Spider.
Making the situation even murkier, Silva went on record in March 2014 saying he would, in fact, fight either Machida or Jacare (h/t MMAFighting.com’s Guilherme Cruz).
Pump the brakes.
The quote sounds catchy at first, but Silva’s answer came as a response to Machida‘s and Souza‘s sentiments.
“In every interview they (Machida and Souza) gave, they said they would fight (me), so I can’t be any different,” Silva said.
Unfortunately for Silva, a fight with Machida or Souza might make sense moving forward. All three men are firmly in the top-10 of the division, and a bout, especially if the title becomes involved, might be inevitable.
For now, Silva will need to focus on his Jan. 31 bout with Nick Diaz and cross that bridge when—or if—he comes to it.
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