UFC President Dana White plans to communicate with Wanderlei Silva after the Brazilian’s gutsy loss to Rich Franklin during the main event of UFC 147.
The PRIDE and UFC striker wants to continue fighting, but it may be time for the UFC brass to step in and force him into retirement.
Silva, a professional MMA fighter since 1996, has been involved in complete slugfests throughout his career. After entering the UFC, however, he only found moderate success, and has lost four his last six fights in the UFC cage.
The 35-year-old is a former PRIDE middleweight champion, and was involved in epic battles with the likes of Quinton “Rampage” Jackson, Ricardo Arona, and Mirko Filipovic during his PRIDE career.
Here is what White recently told MMAjunkie.com:
“Wanderlei is a guy, yeah, I want to talk to. He looked good in that fight He almost won, and it’s not like he got knocked out. And Rich Franklin can crack (guys). He just knocked Chuck (Liddell) out. I don’t think fighting wise. I think Wanderlei is coming to the end. I think he knows that too. There’s nothing wrong with that. We all get old, and this is a young man’s game. We’ll see what happens. I’m not saying he needs to retire, but he’s getting close.”
A growing number of people agree that it may be time for Silva to retire, even though he survived—and almost finished Silva—to take him to a decision. However, after he gassed trying to finish Franklin, he seemingly was one step behind of the American former champion through the following three rounds of their fight.
Whether or not he wants to continue to fight, it’s time for Silva to seriously consider calling it a career. It may take the guidance, or forceful persuasion of White, but Silva deserves to finally rest his body after a long career.
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