Anderson Silva now unsure of his future, says his ‘wish is to continue’ after fight against Uriah Hall
This weekend’s UFC main event between Uriah Hall and legendary former UFC middleweight champion Anderson Silva has been marketed as the 45-year-old Silva’s retirement fight.
After all, UFC President Dana White has said that this will be the Brazilian’s last fight, and Silva himself even recently stated that “this is the last fight” of his career.
Now just days before he steps into the octagon opposite Hall, however, “The Spider” seems far less certain as to what his future holds, even going as far as to admit that his “wish is to continue” fighting.
“Everybody’s asking this, and the answer will always be the same,” Silva said during an online media scrum with the Brazilian media on Wednesday via MMAFighting.com. “Maybe it’s the last, maybe it’s not. Maybe it’s the last fight in the UFC, yes, in agreement between Dana and I. We’ll see. Maybe I’ll do the other fight I have in my contract, maybe not. Anything can happen.”
“After the fight, we’ll probably see what we’ll do, to continue fighting or not, but my wish is to continue, for sure,” he added. “But let’s wait. Uriah is the focus now, and after that we’ll see the next steps, we’ll talk to Dana, we’ll see what’s doable and what’s not.”
While he’s undoubtedly one of the greatest fighters of all-time, there’s no denying that Anderson Silva has hit some rough times in recent years. Since losing his title to Chris Weidman in 2013, for example, he’s gone just 1-5-1, has failed multiple drug tests and has been injured inside of the cage on more than one occasion.
Given his age and the state of his career, many have argued that he likely should’ve retired a few years ago. And while Silva claims that he would like to continue fighting, he also said that it’s “correct” to market this upcoming fight as his retirement bout because ultimately, it could end up being his last.
As of now, however, “The Spider” seems to be focused solely on Hall.
“The fight with Uriah is my focus, and then we’ll see if we really want to stop, if we’ll continue, if we’ll leave the UFC or not,” Silva said. “All that, we’ll find out after the fight. I’ll be able to answer you and other reporters.”
Hall and Silva will meet in the main event of UFC on ESPN+ 39, which takes place Saturday night in Las Vegas at the UFC Apex.
