I guess Anderson Silva didn’t learn anything from Jake Paul’s ill-conceived CTE confession back in early 2021 or he would have already known that you can’t brag about head trauma and expect a stateside athletic commission to let you fight.
Coming back from the dead is also a bad look.
Silva, 47, recently told MMA Weekly that he was knocked out twice in one sparring session while preparing for his Jake Paul headliner, which takes place this Sat. night (Oct. 29, 2022) from inside Desert Diamond Arena in Glendale, Arizona.
Read that confession here.
“After seeing the reports and concern for me, I’d like to clarify two important things,” Silva wrote in a prepared statement (via MMA Fighting). “One, I was NEVER knocked out in sparring. I misspoke in that interview as I sometimes do when interviewing in English and exaggerated the normal back-and-forth action that occurs in sparring. Second, this sparring session I referenced was in early September. The interview with MMA Weekly was done on Sept. 13 and, for some reason, just released this week. So, it wasn’t recent.”
Interviews are often held until fight week (when they are most relevant).
Silva is no doubt under the microscope as a result of his age, as well as the gruesome ending to his UFC career. The Brazilian was cut loose after losing seven of his last eight (including one “No Contest”) with four of those losses ending by way of technical knockout.
Working in his favor are two consecutive wins as a boxer.
Silva made his return to the “sweet science” to register back-to-back wins over established boxer Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. and fellow UFC veteran Tito Ortiz in 2021. Even so, Silva still opened as the odds-on betting underdog for his upcoming Paul fight.
Expect Team “Spider” to have more to say on this during Thursday’s presser.