Anderson Silva plans to fight for three more years
Anderson Silva, who is 46-years-old, says he plans to fight for three more years.
Silva has been competing in boxing and MMA since 1997 and is still going. The former UFC middleweight champion will return to the boxing ring on Saturday on Triller Fight Club Legends 2 against Tito Ortiz. It’s an intriguing matchup and for “Spider” he says he is still having fun competing and says he still has a few years left.
“I don’t know (if I fight in my 50s), but my goal is for my last fight to be at age 49. At 49, I’m done. Probably, thats’ my goal. Fight three more years, then I’m done. 49, that’s the number. Maybe I can fight more, but right now my goal is to stop fighting at age 49. I won’t fight anymore,” Silva said to TMZ. “But I don’t know. I’m in good shape. I’m so happy to go to the gym every day, the Spider Lab, and learning something new. I’m so happy, bro. I’m a very lucky guy because God gives me the opportunity to continue doing my job. That’s insane. It’s incredible.”
Anderson Silva is set to return to the ring on Saturday night against Ortiz and is coming off his return to the boxing where he defeated Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. by split decision in June. Against Ortiz, they will fight at 195-pounds which Ortiz has been very critical of as he doesn’t like that Silva is making him cut that much weight.
Prior to the win over Chavez Jr., Silva was on a three-fight losing skid in MMA with losses to Uriah Hall, Jared Cannonier, and Israel Adesanya. The Brazilian is just 1-7 and one No Contest in his last nine. However, during his prime, he was one of the best ever as he beat the likes of Chael Sonnen, Forrest Griffin, Demian Maia, Dan Henderson, Rich Franklin, and Nate Marquardt among others.