Anderson Silva has been fighting professionally since 1997. During that time, he has stepped into the ring or cage a total of 38 times. If the words of Silva’s manager, Ed Soares, are to be believed, that number will hit at least 47 before Silva calls it a career.
Of his 38 professional bouts, Silva has walked away the victor 33 times. He’s seen his name in the loss column just five times. The last time Silva walked out of the cage was following his fifth defeat and first since 2006.
It was also the biggest loss of his career.
When Chris Weidman knocked out Silva on July 6, it ended Silva’s reign as UFC middleweight champion. The loss also brought an end to Silva’s 17-fight winning streak, a streak that began one fight prior to his UFC debut in 2006.
The Weidman fight was the first on a 10-fight deal that Silva signed with the UFC earlier this year. Discussing the deal with MMA Junkie, Silva said, “I wanted to do four more fights, and they said eight, so I said, ‘Whatever. Let’s do eight, 10. Let’s do however many fights you want.’ They got on that ride and offered me 10 fights, and that’s what I signed.”
That kind of “whatever” talk made it seem unlikely that Silva would fight out the contract.
Not so, according to Soares, who told AXS TV’s Inside MMA:
Silva is 38 years old and is not the most active fighter on the UFC’s roster. The last time Silva fought more than twice in a calendar year was 2008, when he fought Dan Henderson, James Irvin and Patrick Cote. Since then he has fought only twice per year. If Silva continues fighting twice a year, it will take him until the end of 2017 to fulfill his contract.
While I hope Soares is right, and we will get to see Silva at least nine more times inside the Octagon, I wouldn’t put money down on those words.
Then again, we have come to expect the unexpected from Silva, so you never know.
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