Anderson Silva vs. Conor McGregor? Shut up and take my money…
During recent years we’ve seen a strange transition in the world of MMA. Within the UFC especially, rankings are taking a backseat. Replacing the more traditional title contention bouts are money fights.
Focusing more on the big sellers, the UFC are more than happy to let this storyline play out. Just take Conor McGregor’s last three fights for example. Another interesting bout brewing features McGregor and Anderson Silva.
Anderson’s Challenge
Last week former UFC middleweight champion Anderson Silva made an interesting statement. Claiming he wanted to punch ‘dwarf’ Conor McGregor before retiring, Silva’s comments were totally out of the blue.
Now, via MMAFighting.com, ‘The Spider’ has explained his reasons for wanting to fight the Irishman. Adding to the intrigue, Silva claims he has tested a cut to 174 pounds in order to compete against McGregor:
Interest
“I’d like to test myself against Conor because he’s an interesting martial artist,” Silva said during a UFC 208 media scrum in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. “His stand-up game is an intelligent game. Not because he’s champion now, but for the martial arts challenge. I’d like to see how these stand-up techniques, his and mine, would mix, and how that would go. But not to fight for a belt or anything like that. For the challenge, an interest, that thing about knowing how a fight like this would go.”
“I believe he can make 176, 178 pounds, right? That’s a weight I can get,” said Silva, who mentioned recently that he could get closer to 170 pounds. “We started this work and I got to 174, but we thought it would be better now to do these tests.
“There was no fight booked, we made 174, and master (Rogerio) Camoes said ‘man, you don’t need this, you’re fine, so go back to your division.’ I know I can make 174 now, but my team and my doctor, Marcio Tannure, decided to stay in my division.”
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