Will Anderson Silva Retire Next Year?

Anderson "The Spider" Silva, considered by most to be the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world, recently caught people off-guard when he announced to a Brazilian television channel that he would "retire next year".

According to BloodyElbow.com (link below), Silva made his comments to SporTV, a Brazilian cable channel. The exact quote was:

"I'll retire next year, I already gave my all. I don't need to prove anything for anyone and within one year I'll put my gloves aside."

A few thoughts crossed my mind when I read this quote:

1. Many fighters have a desire to "go out on top", but at the age of 33, I think that Silva still has 2-3 years left before he starts to show any signs of slowing down. Silva keeps himself in great shape and trains with the best, so I can definitely see him remaining in his prime for years to come.

2. Is he bored? Silva hasn't had a great challenge yet in the UFC. Dan Henderson took Silva far into the second round, but still lost. A recent foray into the light heavyweight division resulted in another lopsided victory. The upcoming fight against Cote will also likely be a squash. Silva strikes me as the type of fighter that needs challenges in order to keep himself interested. This "retirement" talk may be a way of securing "big" matches over the short-term, or maybe he is just legitimately bored.

3. Silva strikes me as the type of person that could retire and stay retired. Many fighters retire, only to return a few months later. Silva seems different to me in that respect.

4. Silva could be saying this to secure more money from the promotion in the future.

5. The UFC needs to start dangling some "big" matches in front of Silva, or they run the risk of watching him walk. They already turned down the idea of a Silva vs Roy Jones Jr fight - they should probably consider booking a Silva vs Liddell or Silva vs Jackson match in the near future. Silva needs some sort of a challenge to keep himself interested.

Will Silva retire next year? Only he knows that. The UFC needs to do what it can to keep Silva interested, and that will mean pitching him some big fights at the light heavyweight level. There is no one that I can think of currently in the UFC that would provide Silva a challenge at the middleweight level - he needs to make the move to light heavyweight, and he needs to fight the best in that division.

Source: Bloody Elbow

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