There was a time when leaving Anderson Silva in limbo sounded like a ludicrous idea but things have changed in 2020.
Silva is without a doubt one of the most decorated fighters in the history of MMA. While some may put an asterisk next to his name due to doping incidents, “The Spider” still has his place in the history books. The once dominant middleweight has seen better days and is at the tail end of his fighting career. It’s gotten to the point where even UFC president Dana White doesn’t know what to do.
Dana White Stumped On Anderson Silva’s Next Fight
Speaking to ESPN’s Brett Okamoto, White admitted that based on his last two losses he’s unsure what Silva’s fighting future holds (h/t BJPenn.com).
“I don’t know,” White told ESPN recently. “I honestly don’t know what to do with his last two fights. When Anderson’s really ready to fight, we’ll sit down and look at it, and we’ll figure out what we thinks makes sense for him next. There’s a lot of things that goes into the decision-making process with an Anderson Silva. His age, what he gets paid – all that stuff’s important.”
One fight White isn’t likely to book is Silva vs. Anthony Pettis. While both men have expressed interest in fighting one another, White doesn’t like the significant gap in weight between the two. White also doesn’t feel such a bout is meaningful enough to put on a UFC card given that both men are well-known and are higher up on the pay scale.
White also isn’t keen on putting Silva vs. Conor McGregor together. It’s another situation where both fighters have said they want the matchup but White doesn’t agree. The UFC boss wanted McGregor to wait for the winner of Khabib Nurmagomedov vs. Justin Gaethje, but the “Notorious” one claims he has decided to retire due to pushback from the organization on his desires.
