Wanderlei Silva is done with MMA, but he’s not stepping away from the fight game entirely.
At 46 years old, the former PRIDE Champion decided to announce his official MMA retirement just a few weeks ago. Fast forward to now and Silva is making headlines once again. And no, he’s not exactly coming out of retirement. Instead, he has sights on making his boxing debut.
‘I Wanna Box Someone Good’
In this day and age, MMA legends crossing over into boxing isn’t unheard of. We’ve got Anderson Silva boxing Jake Paul now, for crying out loud. It looks like ‘The Axe Murderer’ is now going to try his hand at boxing, given the fact it’s the latest trend. Wanderlei wants a real test inside the ring.
“I would like to fight a boxer, right?” Silva said on Trocação Franca. “I always liked to do it on their game. Even when I was training, I liked to do jiu-jitsu with jiu-jitsu guys and wrestle wrestlers. I like to test myself. I would like to box one of those good guys, maybe a former world champion, something like that. That would be interesting.”
“But I don’t want to fight an old man like our friend [Vitor Belfort] did, fighting [Evander Holyfield], who’s almost 70. It has to be someone younger, right? To fight an old man and beat them quickly is something other type of fighters do. I won’t do that. I wanna box someone good.”
Silva Names Two Legends He Wants To Fight
Speaking of Belfort’s boxing win over Holyfield (who was age 58 at the time), Silva acknowledged the former UFC Champion as a potential opponent. The Brazilian also name-dropped another former foe in Dan Henderson for his debut.
“It could be. Why not?” Silva said of facing Belfort, who he lost to in 1998. “He’s been running for a long time but who knows, right? Maybe now in this moment of life we can book it and box. It would be cool to have this type of challenge. We’d make a lot of noise and help our sport grow.
“Another rematch I wanted was Dan Henderson. I beat Dan Henderson the first time but lost the second one. I was a bit sick that day, I wasn’t 100 percent, but Dan Henderson is someone I would like to fight as well. If he’s down to box as well, I would love to punch him.”
Silva’s last outing would come against another fellow legend in Quinton Jackson back in 2018. Unfortunately, Silva would be TKO’ed by ‘Rampage’ in two rounds. Silva has not fought since.
Who do you want to see Wanderlei Silva box against?
