Anderson Silva has been around for a long time, and it’s honestly crazy that he’s still actively competing. He is 41 years old. He has teased retirement on and off since defeating Chael Sonnen in 2012. He hasn’t won a fight since UFC 153, where he defeated Stephan Bonnar by knockout. The craziest thing? He is just two fights deep into a 15-fight UFC contract…which he actually plans on completing.
Anderson Silva beat Nick Diaz, but the win was turned into a No Contest due to his drug test failure. Photo by Sherdog.
Speaking with Fox Sports, Silva expressed his desire to take on 13 more fights.
“Yeah, of course (I could fight that long)…Of course, I’m very happy UFC gave me one more chance for a fight again. I think this is very important for me to take back some time for my fights. I’m very happy, I’m very excited. I’m very happy. I’m very excited. It’s my dream to fight in Brazil in my country, in my city. My career started here.”
So could he actually do that? In a word…naw.
Silva signed a contract extension ahead of his fight with Nick Diaz, but the UFC’s intent was to keep Silva out of Bellator, not actually keep him around that long. Photo by Sherdog.
Silva was forced out of his UFC 198 fight with Uriah Hall due to a gall bladder ailment, so he has 13 fights left on his contract and likely won’t be able to come back until August, at the earliest. If Silva is VERY active (more active than he ever was as champion, mind you), it would still take him until 2021 to complete his contract at the earliest. That would require him to fight until age 46…a year older than Dan Henderson is right now.
If Silva tried to finish his current contract, he would have to fight until he’s older than Dan Henderson is today. Photo by Sherdog.com.
That, obviously, is excessively unlikely to occur. The biggest reason, of course, is that Silva has been struggling in the cage.
While he is the greatest fighter of all time, he’s been struggling since losing to Chris Weidman and was recently rocked twice by the soft-handed Michael Bisping. Silva is already fighting TUF also-rans like Uriah Hall and it would be sad to see him slide further and further down the card.
Even if he somehow could complete his contract…it would be an incredibly long, depressing road.
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