Antonio Silva and Mark Hunt fought to a majority draw in one of the best fights of the year, but the fact that neither won the bout doesn’t mean they need an immediate rematch.
“Bigfoot” returned home following the 25-minute war with Hunt at UFC Fight Night 33 in Brisbane, Australia, and doesn’t want to enter the cage to fight his former training partner one more time.
“Dana White said there won’t be a rematch, and I prefer this way,” Silva told MMAFighting.com. “I like Mark Hunt a lot, we used to train together, so I rather fight someone else.”
“I have no idea what’s next for me, though,” he continued. “I saw that Cain (Velasquez) had a shoulder surgery and won’t fight for a long time, and I don’t know if Werdum will wait for him. It’s very confusing right now. I don’t know what to expect.
“Browne and Barnett are going to fight now and it’s going to be a great fight, so I’m open to fight anyone UFC wants. I’ll get back to training to work on what I need to fix.”
Prior to the bout, Silva said he expected to finish Hunt, and was surprised they went five rounds.
“I didn’t go the distance too much in my career so I wasn’t expecting to go 25 minutes against Mark Hunt,” he said. “I went for the knockout all the time, so did he. He’s a great athlete and was fighting in his home, so I didn’t want to let it in the judges’ hands. It was a war.”
Silva thinks he deserved the win, but isn’t bothered by the draw in the ‘fight of the year’ candidate.
“You always want to win, we train for that, but I believe the draw was fair for what we showed in the fight,” he said. “We respected each other a lot before and after the fight.
“I hope the fans vote it for the best fight of the year. I leave it in their hands. We’re there because of the fans, so I hope they vote for us. We had great wars this year, like Melendez’ last fight, but I do hope they vote for us. We tried our best.”
Hunt suffered a broken hand during the five-round battle, but Silva is ready to get back to the gym.
“Except for black eyes and some stitches, I had no injuries,” he said. “I did some exams in the hospital after the fight but had nothing serious after the fight. I had an old back injury that was a problem in my last couple weeks of camp, I couldn’t do physical training properly, and that’s why I got tired in the fifth round.”