Anderson Silva is done with MMA, will focus on boxing in the future
Anderson Silva will go down as one of the best mixed martial artists of all time. In the time he spent at the top of the UFC middleweight division, he proved that he was dangerous and should never be taken lightly. Recently his performances have been slipping and “Spider” has lost five of his last six fights and eventually was released from the UFC. For a while, it seemed that Silva could be looking for a new promotion to sign with, but nothing came to fruition. Now Silva has announced that he will be hanging up his MMA gloves for good.
“I think MMA for me is done,” Silva told ESPN. “Because it’s hard to train MMA. It’s hard to stay training in a good level because you hurt yourself a lot. Now I just try to enjoy it. I don’t need to prove nothing for anybody. I just try to enjoy every single moment I fight in different sports. And that’s it.”
Just because Silva is stepping away from MMA, doesn’t mean he will be out of combat sports for good. He already has a new adventure waiting for him in the world of boxing. Silva will be stepping into the boxing ring when he takes on Julio Cesar Chavez Jr on June 19 in Guadalajara, Mexico on Pay-Per-View. Silva has been upping his boxing training in anticipation of this fight, but will not be completely forgetting about his grappling. He is open to all different types of opportunities.
“Maybe my next challenge is jiu-jitsu — gi or no-gi,” Silva said. “Just enjoy the moment. The whole martial arts. I’m lucky because every time I fight MMA, I’m training hard and I put my heart and my real affection inside the cage.”
At 46 years old, Anderson Silva has had a Hall of Fame type of career. Anything he has to add in combat sports at this time is just icing on the cake for one of the greatest of all time.
