Anderson Silva will not fight for the rest of this year
Posted on August 13, 2012, 02:21 PM by Mike Drahota
With many fighters at Middleweight clamoring to call out long-reigning division champion Anderson Silva, the Brazilian legend is hearing none of it. News comes today the Silva will stay on the shelf for the entire remainder of 2012, choosing to forego another chance to extend his UFC-record title defense streak. Dana White confirmed this earlier today, saying the following to MMAJunkie.com:
"Anderson said he wants to take some time off until after the end of this year, and then we'll start talking to him. Anderson is going to fight after the end of the year."
Recent news has seen fighters look for a fight with the champ like never before. Tim Boetsch called him out to say he could submit him, after a very lackluster win over Hector Lombard. Alan Belcher looked for a title fight after he beat always-dangerous Rousimar Palhares. Michael Bisping awaits his long-sought after chance at the belt. Of course, the rumors of superfights with GSP and Jon Jones abound, with nothing concrete ever materializing.
Perhaps the most deserving man may be Chris Weidman, who has made his title plans no secret after destroying Mark Munoz last month. In any case, the list is long, but Silva is in no hurry to step into the cage with any of these men. White commented with high praise on Weidman:
"He's in a great spot. The kid looked fantastic. He demolished – demolished – the No. 3 guy (in the division) in spectacular fashion. He has the right to call out whoever he wants."
The conversation about who can defeat Silva has already grown stale and redundant. However, now we will have more and more time to speculate on it. In a year where we have seen the most dominant champions Silva and GSP fight only once collectively, should Silva look to further his legacy more?
Comments
This is the part where Silva haters click poor and talk shit about avoiding fights, and the other half who see clearly, realize there is only 4 months left in the year, which makes it a 5 month vacation with family...not that big of a deal. He should take a few more fights and then retire with the perfect record...if he pulls it off.
Thats not true, im a huge silva fan and im gonna weak this. The thing is for silva fans this is bad news he fought twice in 2010, twice in 2011, and only once this year....come on man this is getting stupid, and now he wants 4 months off, you make it causual by saying there are only 4 months left in the year, thats a third of the year he is asking to take off...what right does he have to take 4 months break after 1 fight in 11 months???? Its bull sh.it, for his fans especially time catchs up with everyone, if he wants time off let him blitz through his contract beat everyone in his way and retire, age is eventually going to get him, it makes me nervous because fighters like silva who use there timing, speed, and cat like reflexs are usually the ones that fall from the top, it happend to roy jones jr, when age catches up with silva and his reflexs go...he will get beat and it wont be pretty, so he needs to hurry up cement his legacy and retire gracefully, as a true fan thats what i want to see, him go out on top, and crowned the g.o.a.t no loss, and we never witness his skill set drop from mythological to mortal
anderson silva is waiting to see if the end of the world 2012 is real first! he wants to die a champion i cant blame the spider!~
What right does he have? Being undefeated and defending his title 10 times straight against EVERYBODY they put against him, even guys they said he was ducking (LOL) such as Sonnen, Okami and Hendo... he fought them and finished them all in spectacular fashion.
most fighters try and get 4 fights a year in Silva has became premadona
alot of things he has done the last 2 yrs leans towards bytch made.....and thenworking on being Jon Jones buddy since the first talks about them doing super fight back around the Shugun fight and now the are BFF's and wont fight each other its one of the only super fights that make since
Also his age as well as numerous injuries probably don't exactly make him eager to have a crazy hard training regime after just finishing one last month.
Especially against one of these contenders who he doesn't believe deserve a shot at his throne.... and let's be real and admit they all need another big win and the only two guys who could bring big name value to the fight is Vitor and Belfort... the rest are unknown to everyone except the hardcores mainly.
What right do YOU have to question when and who the GOAT fights?
hahahaha i think people have taken my post a little harshly, its hard to convey tone on here. Firstly i never questioned WHO he should fight, and just to clear something up, i think rashard evans has just as much name value as Belfort, and hes been on record calling out the champ....so there is certainly a fight worth making there. His age thing does go against him with the training, but you know what randy couture had 4 fights in 14 months....and he was like 10 years older than andy and yes yes i know hes a freak but still 1 fight a year is stupid, it clogs up the division, and i know the division aint at breaking point but if this continues its gonna mess everything up like at welter weight where eveyone thinks they are in line for a shot. Secondly yes he is the goat and he does have nothing to prove to anyone, but 4 months off is steep and then going off your own logic, age and all the injuires he has, most fighters take a 10-12 week training camp, so without an injury we are looking at seeing the spider in action in 7 months time, say he gets a minor injury or two when are we gonna see him next???? yeh sure give him 2 months off, and then say yo silva, rashard is ready to fight you in Jan/feb how you feel about that? And this last point im gonna get criticised for but here goes anyway, he should not have more authority than dana to say hey i am your greatest fighter so im gonna take a third of the year off and fight someone i want to fight...because according to ed soares the middle weight division is full of ameatures so they are looking at fighting the strikeforce middle weight champ.....really???? Its bull and yeh he has provided the best fights for his fans, and thats the reason im saying all this, i dont want him fighting his last 3 fights over a 3 year span, because thats the trend set by him so far, and in 3 years time come his last fight is the spider gonna be the same, age will eventually catch up, and i think its gonna be soon, although there have been no signs, im not asking him to fight 5 times a year or watever but i dont think fighting twice a year is really to much to ask, especially since he has only 3 fights left? I dunno may be its me
Fans always have the right to question--they pay the bills.
Also, I don't see Anderson as the GOAT--not that I like the term anyway.
Anderson Silva has earned some right to choose his fights--to a point. But at the end of the day, every UFC champion should be prepared to fight the next in line--whether they deem the challanger worthy or not, or whether the challenger has a big enough name to generate PPVs.
Silva's camp seems to be saying that no current MW's are worthy to fight the champ. Silva wants superfights--but not with Jon Jones, but a superfight with the smaller GSP is just fine. That seems like ducking to me. That seems like cherry picking to me.
Look at all the vitriol heaped on GSP for not moving UP to MW to fight the much larger and putative GOAT? Why don't fans give AS the gears for not moving up--espeically if he feels there are no worthy MW contenders.
Personally, I believe Weidman, Belfort and Belcher offer credible challenges to Silva--not to mention Rashad Evans moving down.
Father time can be a bit*h to all of us at some point. Although he hasn't shown any signs of slowing down, the G.O.A.T is getting old. Get some rest, G.O.A.T. I Wish he would just retire, though
Hes my favourite fighter ever so Id love to see him fight 5 times a year but he has nothing left to prove and many guys retire before they get to his age. Hopefully he fights early 2013 and can get in the ring 3 times next year.
I'm right there with you. My second favourite, fighter behind Chuck, and I agree I'd love him to be a Jon Jones and fight 4 times a year but he isn't someone like Jones - Jon went out there to prove himself and use his age to his advantage and do it while he still can.
Anderson's age is against him and he proved himself years ago.
Spider can take as much time as he needs as long as he is his normal self come fight night.
Just super saiyan...
The UFC really needs to have a hard rule regarding activity to keep competition for the belts fair. Stuff legacy and putting the belt on hold. Champions should have to defend their belts 3 times in a year. If they cannot do that then they forfeit the belt a fight-off between the two top challengers. If Champions are injured and have to forfeit, then they automatically get first crack at the belt once they are cleared to fight.
And then have a belt that means nothing? If you get a injury that puts back a training camp 3 months then that means your title is stripped?
If that happened the belt would be worth nothing.
Get real, their not Superman they get injured just like we do.
This is the way Silva wants to wind down his career, and it's his choice. If he only wants to fight once a year, that is the way it's going to be.
The reports about the injury that kept him out for 11 months are all a bit sketchy, including him saying he was "treating himself". It was a long lay off, considering he didn't have surgery.
His fight rate suggests he's at the end of his career. When you have the record for longest win streak and most title defenses in a row, I can imagine it's hard to keep wanting to go out there 2 to 3 times a year.
But think about this...his records are great, but not untouchable. GSP is about four wins/defenses behind Silva, and Jon Jones is not that far back either.
And if the day comes that his records fall, I wonder if Anderson will wish he had fought more.
10 consecutive title defenses is only "just getting it" ?
Dana White " My fighter fight 3 time a year to prove there the best." Did anyone ele's BS meter just go off? I can't remember I haven't seen any of his Champions fight 3 time in one year for the last 2years.
Jon Jones did. Lets not just disregard the rest of the organizations accomplishments because you're mad the spider won't fight more often. Honestly, I think if there was competition who could actually take him down, he would probably fight 4 times a year. But risk getting hurt over and over to fight the same fighters who didn't stand a chance the first fight doesn't make any sense either in my book.
Would love to see him fight more, but there really is nobody for him to fight since he won't fight jon jones..
Yeh i sort of agree with you there, The spiders attitude to his competition is that he knows they are inferior to him, and i can understand he does not want to slog it out in a training camp 3 times a year risking serious injury to fight people below his level, however first of all its his job to, and secondly and i thought this only recently, why call out the likes of Luke Rockhold, no disrespect, but he has nothing on the champ, and the champ knows it, especially when evans is calling him out... there are people for him to fight and he is actively looking for fights, albiet this fight with luke makes him look like he wants to fight someone easy, i dont want him finishing his last 3 fights with sub par competition. Either dont call anyone out and let dana sort out your fights, let people call you out, or just stop, there is no need to even consider fighting Luke Rockhold, his name vaule is nothing to casual fans, just no nothing in it for spider except an easy pay day....
Like Anderson but if he no want fight he can no have belt.
Who is there to fight anyway? Chris Weidman and maybe Belcher and Bisping. Bisping is the only name that could look good on Silva's record at that point. And he's not ready right now.
ha! facepolm
why not? hes an old man!
You have no idea how hard his training for Sonnen must have been. He probably won the biggest fight of his career at ufc 148.
10 consecutive title defenses[record], 15 consecutive wins in the ufc[record], longest title reign[record], most dominant champion ever. That's why he has the right to take a break.
Sounds like he wants to wait GSP to fight Condit and see how he does.
If not injured, champions should defend around three times a year, and should not have a word to say about who the contender will be.
This is almost good for the Middleweight division, it seems a lot weaker then the rest due to the fact that one guy has remained Kingpin for so long.
The GOAT can do whatever he feels like doing whith his life....He earned it...
Lets keep it real...the best fighter of all time, the most spectacular man to ever step in the octagon will not be treated like the rest...he can and should do whatever the **** he feels like doing....once again....he earned that.....a small price for us to pay to witness greatness....be glad you lived in the Anderson Silva era...