Anderson Silva Warns The Paul Brothers: ‘They Have To Fight Me And Vitor’

Out of all the opponents Anderson Silva could face next in boxing, he just had to call out Jake and Logan Paul.

Anderson Silva put on a masterclass in the ring on Saturday night at Triller Fight Club’s Holyfield vs. Belfort event … a short masterclass but a masterclass none the less. It took him just 1:22 to feel out and annihilate Tito Ortiz, showboating his way around the ring before cracking the former UFC light heavyweight champ on the jaw and dropping him unconscious to the canvas with a stiff left hook (watch the highlights here).

Going into the fight, Ortiz had declared he was going to fight right through Silva’s “magic, Wing Chun, Bruce Lee bullsh*t.”

After knocking him out, Silva implied that was the wrong thing to say. “I training hard to show my respect for the boxing world, and I continue to work every day to prove my respect for martial arts, for Wing Chun, and for Bruce Lee.”

During the Triller post-fight press conference, he kept things respectful and positive.

“I thank my team, working hard, I’m working hard,” Silva said. “I just try to enjoy every single moment I come inside the cage, inside the ring, you know? I need to say thank you God, for one more time, for give me the opportunity to come in here and do my job.”

Silva revealed that he spent a large part of his training camp getting beaten up by his sparring partners.

“I think the training is tough. And when I’m training with my partners, I feel ready for everything inside the ring,” Silva said. “My coach trained me a lot, Coach [Luiz] Dorea helped me continue to do my job, and Coach Nico [Robledo] too, and my partners, Eliezer [Silva, no relation], Lil Nico [Robledo Jr], my son Gabriel helped me a lot, my son Khalil too.”

“And I’m so happy, you know, because when I train in the gym and I feel how much the guys beat me and knock me, I say woah, I dunno, I no go continue that. I’m too old for that. And when my coaches come and talk to me in the bathroom and say ‘Hey come on, wake up. These are your partners that prepare you to stay ready for war.’ And I’m here.”

He singled out one sparring partner as particularly tough: Eliezer Silva, who competed (and won) on the prelim portion of the night’s card.

“I talk to him and I say, ‘Man, let me tell you something: you don’t win this fight, I promise I go put in the ground and I beat you. Because you knock me about the whole time in the gym. You can’t fail in the fight. But yeah, Eliezer is a good guy, a very good kid, he’s my little brother and I say it the whole time for my friends: I don’t have friends in the gym, I have a family. And Eliezer is family.”

Anderson still showed a lot of class when talking about Tito, but still got another jab in at that Wing Chun comment.

“Tito is a great fighter and I prepare my body and my mind for war,” he said. “And sometimes you win and sometimes you lose, and I win this time and I’m happy … Now I go home and stay with my family and continue to learn more Wing Chun and training boxing.”

When asked if he might be interested in facing Oscar De La Hoya next, Silva refused to bite. Instead he offered the bout back to Vitor before calling out the Paul brothers.

“I think the [De La Hoya] fight that’s interesting is Vitor, because Vitor is in front of me,” he said. “And I think De La Hoya needs to fight with Vitor. And Jake Paul and his brother, they have a fight to fight me and Vitor. It’s a good fight.”

Well, as sick as we are of Jake and Logan Paul sucking up all the oxygen in boxing, we also wouldn’t mind watching Anderson Silva do to one of them what he just did to Tito Ortiz.

Silva finished the press conference off once again with an ode of respect to the sweet science.

“It’s funny and incredible for me because I love boxing. I just watched Evander Holyfield, Mike Tyson, Roy Jones Jr. And I say woah, one day maybe I go fight at the same level as these guys. And I’m here today, working hard to prove my respect for the boxing community. “