Anderson Silva has one more mixed martial arts (MMA) fight left in the tank.
“The Spider” fittingly last stepped foot inside Ultimate Fighting Championship’s (UFC) Octagon on Halloween night of Oct. 31, 2020. Unfortunately for the iconic Brazilian, he was unable to close out that chapter of his career on a high note, suffering a fourth-round technical knockout to Uriah Hall.
Silva was subsequently released from the promotion and appeared to be retired from MMA, joining the professional boxing world. That tune has now changed, however, as the former Middleweight kingpin has hopes of one final fight against a familiar opponent on familiar land.
“Let me take my break, bro. I’m 48, bro, come on,” Silva told Fight Hub TV (h/t BJPenn.com). “I need to prepare for training, of course, I train every day… Yeah, absolutely [I still want to fight], yeah. I tried to have my last fight in MMA in Japan because I started fighting in Japan.
“That’s what I tried to do, my last fight in Japan,” he added. “My last MMA fight in Japan, I’m just waiting. Maybe Hayato Sakurai, because Sakurai fight with me in Shooto, you know. I think this is a good fight for us, we will see.”
Sakurai (38-13-2), 47, was handed his first career defeat at 18-0-2 against Silva via unanimous decision in Aug. 2001. It was just Silva’s eighth career bout and seventh win before having a handful of fights in Japan inside the PRIDE Fighting Championship ring.
Dec. 2016 saw Sakurai end a three-year layoff to make his debut in RIZIN Fighting Federation. The Ibaraki Prefecture native won the fight via a second-round technical knockout and he hasn’t fought since.
Since he departed from UFC and MMA, Silva has been in discussions with RIZIN, but nothing has come to fruition. Silva’s last time out came in the boxing ring against Jake Paul in Oct. 2022 where he lost a unanimous decision (watch highlights).