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UFC champ Anderson Silva: I now want to retire at middleweight

Steven Marrocco, MMAjunkie.com Jul 28, 12:43 am EDT


Forget light heavyweight, forget heavyweight, and especially forget welterweight; Anderson Silva says he wants to stick to middleweight.

The UFC's 185-pound champion today said that he plans to retire in the 185-pound class and apparently is uninterested in fighting at light heavyweight (where he's competed twice) or heavyweight (a class in which he's previously expressed interest).

"I like my weight division that I fight in, and I'm prepared to stay in my weight division," Silva today said through translator and manager, Ed Soares.

That answer came as a clarification to an earlier question. Asked whether he had grown bored in the middleweight division - where he's set the record for most consecutive title defenses at six - Soares translated the previous quote.

Then, Silva interrupted the next question.

"Basically, what he said is that he said I didn't translate it exactly, but he wants to retire fighting in his weight category," Soares said.

Next weekend, on Aug. 7, Silva (26-4 MMA, 11-0 UFC) makes his seventh title defense when he meets Chael Sonnen (24-10-1 MMA, 4-3 UFC) at UFC 117 in Oakland, Calif.

The champion has largely been on the defensive since his most recent title defense, a unanimous-decision win over Demian Maia at UFC 112 that was almost universally panned by fans and critics. It followed another action-light fight at UFC 97 in which he and challenger Thales Leites failed to create fireworks over the course of a five-round, 25-minute affair.

Silva took the heat in stride and said he will continue to do his job.

"The fans are fans," he said. "They're cheering one minute; they're booing you the next minute. A lot of times, fans (are) the greatest thing ever. But sometimes fans don't really understand what's happening in the ring at times. So, I don't really blame them for reacting in some of the ways they react."

UFC president Dana White appears less forgiving. Upon the announcement of Silva vs. Sonnen, he said he will fire Silva in the event of another lackluster performance.

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I really wanted to see him jump up in weight classes. I think he would be a great LHW. Granted this just says he wants to retire at MW, but to me, it says he is pretty much going to stay there save a few matches here and there or some catch weight fights.

I would still love to see JSP and the Spider go at it.

LiquidSmoke said:

they should just have all the champions of every weight class participate in a giant tournament to determine who is the biggest badass american xience guido muscular macho awsome dude.  Soldier.

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I would still love to see JSP and the Spider go at it.

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JSP