MMA legend Anderson Silva may not be the fighter he once was, but he proved on Saturday night he still can put on an entertaining show. With his match upgraded to the main event of UFC 234 - following
the cancellation UFC middleweight champion Robert Whittaker and Kelvin Gastelum - Silva and Adesanya went the full distance in their three-round middleweight bout.
It was an entertaining fight for all three rounds featuring plenty of action and highlight-reel worthy moments. But it was Adesanya who emerged as the winner via a unanimous decision victory (29-28, 30-27, 30-27). The judges' scores paint a pretty one-sided bout, but Silva had his moments - even dropping his hands a few times and taunting his younger opponent.
Both fighters showed their respects to one another following the fight. Adesanya (16-0) likened the moment to a basketball kid playing against Michael Jordan. Meanwhile, Silva simply showed his thanks to the fans.
"The Spider," now 43 years of age, has lost three of his past four matches. While he failed to become the first to beat rising star Israel Adesanya, he showed enough flash to stave off further talk of retirement. Silva even laughed off the notion of retirement, especially after a loss.
He's got his sights set on fighting at UFC 237 in May in his home town of Curitiba. In the post-fight press conference, he mentioned Nick Diaz as a potential opponent.
“Because the last time when I tried to fight in Curitiba, I had problems and I take the surgery very fast, and I [withdrew from] the card,” Silva said. “Now I have a chance to fight in my city when everything city, where everything started. I talked to (Silva’s manager) Ed (Soares) and I talked to my team and maybe I think it makes sense, a fight with me and Nick Diaz in Curitiba. Let’s go see. It’s just waiting for (UFC president) Dana (White) because it’s not time to make decisions. Hopefully, I fight in Curitiba.”
A fight between Silva and Diaz would be a rematch of their UFC 183 main event four years ago which Silva own by unanimous decision. However, that bout was overturned to a no contest when Silva tested positive for anabolic steroids and Diaz tested positive for marijuana.