Former longtime UFC middleweight champion Anderson Silva may return to the Octagon before the end of the year, but he isn’t sure he’s going to be up for honoring the eight fights left on his contract.
“The Spider” has been out of action since suffering a gruesome leg break against current champ Chris Weidman at UFC 168 in December and briefly touched on the subject in an interview with SporTV.com (translation per Bloody Elbow).
“I have eight fights to do yet in my contract. I want to do all these fights but I don’t know that I will be in the mood to do this. For now, I’m very excited, I’m going through a renovation phase. It’s going to be nice for me do what I love when I be back to fighting,” he said.
Silva boasts one of the most storied careers in UFC history, rattling off an incredible 16 wins in the cage between June 2006 and October 2012.
During that stretch, he set a UFC record with 10 successful middleweight title defenses, taking out the likes of Rich Franklin (twice), Dan Henderson, Chael Sonnen (twice) and Vitor Belfort.
However, Silva has seemingly met his match in “The All-American,” who became the first fighter in 38 professional bouts to knock the famed Brazilian out cold during their first encounter at UFC 162 in July.
Many gave Silva a mulligan for the performance given the fact that he had excessively showboated and taunted his opponent during the roughly six-minute matchup.
Weidman again controlled the action for the majority of their rematch, which lasted nearly an identical amount of time, but the fight ended in what many felt was a freak accident when Silva broke his left leg on Weidman’s shin.
The undefeated New Yorker (11-0, eight finishes) disagreed, though, noting that the technique was drilled regularly during his fight camp, per Yahoo Sports.
Silva’s first bout with Weidman was the first of a new 10-fight deal with the UFC. Given that Silva is 39 years old, it seems improbable that the dangerous striker will honor the full term of his contract.
John Heinis is a Featured Columnist for Bleacher Report. He is also the MMA editor for eDraft.com
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