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UFC middleweight champion Anderson Silva stepped up in a big way to help the promotion save UFC 153 after both the main event and co-main event bout suffered injuries to different participants.
Because he wasn’t in full training mode, Silva accepted a fight at light heavyweight against Stephan Bonnar in Brazil to headline UFC 153, which marks the third time he’s competed at 205lbs inside the Octagon.
One thing is for sure however, regardless of the success that Silva’s had at light heavyweight, and even if he disposes of Bonnar at UFC 153, fighting at 205lbs doesn’t interest the greatest fighter to ever compete in the UFC.
“There’s always been a lot of talks about me moving up to 205, I know Dana has talked about it a lot, all the fans have talked a lot about me moving up and facing Jon Jones, but it’s something I’ve never wanted,” Silva said on Thursday.
Silva has tested the waters at light heavyweight in the past only because the UFC has asked him to do so when they needed him, but he’s never planning a permanent move there.
The long time Brazilian champion has plenty of teammates who could challenge UFC light heavyweight champion Jon Jones, but he’s not going to be one of them.
“I won’t be pretentious to say that I want to move up, especially because there’s other guys in that weight class on our team like Rafael Feijao (Cavalcante), (Antonio Rogerio) Minotoro Nogueira, there’s other guys that could potentially face Jon Jones in the future,” Silva stated.
At this stage of his career, Anderson Silva has nothing left to prove to anyone. He’s the longest reigning champion in UFC history by leaps and bounds, he has more title defenses than any fighter in UFC history, and he’s widely regarded already as the greatest fighter of this or any time period in mixed martial arts history.
With less years in front of him in the fight game than behind, Anderson Silva’s goals will revolve around more title defenses at middleweight, and not moving up to 205lbs to face new challenges.
“What got me this far is I’m grounded, my weight class is 185,” said Silva.
“I’m 37-years old and I feel like I need to be honest and to continue what I’ve built which is keep defending my belt at 185.”
